President Trump insisted during an intense ABC News interview that deported Maryland man Kilmar Abrego Garcia has knuckle tattoos proving the father of three is a member of the notorious street gang with ties to El Salvador.
Even Fox News agrees the President was likely duped by a photoshopped image making the rounds on the internet, just as he was told by ABC News interviewer Terry Moran during their heated Tuesday night discussion.
“On his knuckles, he had MS-13,” Trump insisted. “On his knuckles, tattooed!”
Perhaps knowing better, Moran urged the President to move on after telling him the photos Trump referenced were doctored.
“That was Photoshop?” Trump replied incredulously. “Terry, you can’t do that.”
Abrego Garcia, 30, was deported to El Salvador in March where he was placed in a notoriously rough prison camp due to what the Trump administration admitted in court was an “administrative error.”
Nevertheless, Trump and his loyalists have since alleged Abrego Garcia is a violent gang member with a dark past even though he’s never been convicted of any crimes. Abrego Garcia’s wife insists her husband isn’t a gang member.
On Tuesday night, with Moran politely trying to change the subject to the war in Ukraine or the struggling economy in the U.S., Trump, 78, accused his host of “not being very nice” and continued to press the issue of Abrego Garcia’s alleged gang tattoos.
“Do you want me to show the picture?” the President pushed.
When Moran suggested the pair agreed to disagree on that topic, Trump accused ABC News of engaging in “fake news” and claimed reporters like Moran are why “people no longer believe” traditional media outlets.
The authenticity of the photo Trump kept referencing has been dismissed as unlikely by numerous outlets including Fox News Digital, whose parent company has historically been very friendly with the President. That outlet reported Wednesday it found other photos of Abrego Garcia that “do not appear to show the tattoo” as it’s being described by the Trump administration.
Fact-checking site Snopes.com said the photo being showed by Trump is genuine, though “it had been edited to insert the text ‘MS-13′” and does not prove a link between Abrego and the gang.
Trump famously declared during a September presidential debate that Haitian migrants in Ohio were eating their neighbors’ pets. That story too had been fueled by internet claims that Ohio officials have said don’t reflect reality.
In 2020 Trump shared an article online that alleged U.S. troops were tricked into killing a body double standing in for terror mastermind Osama bin Laden in 2011. That claim is also widely regarded to be untrue.
It’s unclear if the President believes the alleged image of Abrego Garcia’s tattooed hand indicates he’s a gang member.
With News Wire Services
Originally Published: April 30, 2025 at 3:39 PM EDT
