Donald Trump shares photo of Kilmar Garcia tattoos to prove MS-13 gang link

It seems US President Donald Trump won’t just give up on linking Kilmar Garcia, who was wrongly deported to El Salvador, to the gang MS-13. In his latest post, Trump shared a photo that he claimed to be of Garcia’s knuckles with MS-13 tattooed on them. However, experts and hawk-eyed X users pointed out that the image was photoshopped.

Trump’s post featured a black-and-white photo of a man’s knuckles with the letters “MS-13” above four symbols: a marijuana leaf, a smiley face, a cross and a skull. Trump asserted that he was elected as President to take “bad people out of the US” and he must be allowed to do his job.

“This is the hand of the man that the Democrats feel should be brought back to the United States, because he is such ‘a fine and innocent person’. They said he is not a member of MS-13, even though he’s got MS-13 tattooed onto his knuckles, and two highly respected courts found that he was a member of MS-13, beat up his wife, etc,” Trump tweeted.

Trump’s claim has been called out by former senators and several users on X.

Linda Higgins, a former Minnesota state senator, said, “Hey old man, have someone teach you about photoshop. This is an excellent example of altering a photo, in this case, to make your illegal actions look good. But instead you look foolish.”

Garcia, who has lived in America for about 14 years, was deported to El Salvador last month despite a US immigration court order blocking his removal.

The Trump administration expelled him under the Alien Enemies Act based on a 2019 accusation by police that he was an MS-13 gang member. However, it later described it as “an administrative error” but insisted that he was an MS-13 member.

The Salvadoran gang MS-13 has been designated a foreign terrorist organisation by the US.