White House slammed for ‘childish’ post about El Salvador deportee Kilmar Abrego Garcia

In the latest instance of the White House Twitter/X account reflecting the bizarre language and tweeting style of US president Donald Trump, the administration has commented on the ongoing issue surrounding one Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was wrongly deported to El Salvador by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents (ICE) and who the courts say should now be brought back to the United States.

As a reminder, last week the US Supreme Court ruled Trump’s administration must “’facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador” and bring him back to the US, but even after admitting the “administrative error”, officials have claimed it is impossible to do so.

On Friday, Trump sought to defend the deportation by posting a photo of himself with an image purporting to be Abrego Garcia’s hand tattoos, with the words MS-13 seen just below the knuckles of the hand.

He wrote on social media: “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.”

The courts have not found that Abrego Garcia was a member of the MS-13 gang, and Maryland district judge Paula Xinis – who on 6 April criticised the Trump administration’s “wholly lawless” and “grievous error” - noted “the ‘evidence’ against Abrego Garcia consisted of nothing more than his Chicago Bulls hat and hoodie”.

This, and “a vague, uncorroborated allegation from a confidential informant claiming he belonged to MS-13’s ‘Western’ clique in New York - a place he has never lived”.

As for Trump’s allegation about Abrego Garcia “beating up his wife”, that apparently refers to a protective order filed by his wife Jennifer Vasquez Sura in 2021 which was dissolved by her a month later.

Content on Vasquez Sura’s TikTok account shows tattoos on his knuckles, but none with “MS-13” spelled out.

However, some social media users claim his wife has been trying to “censor” the tattoos, citing a 6 April post on the platform where red heart emojis cover his hand.

And following Maryland senator Chris Van Hollen’s visit to El Salvador to meet Abrego Garcia, the White House has critiqued a report of the meeting from The New York Times.

“Fixed it for you, @NYTimes. Oh, and by the way, @ChrisVanHollen – he’s NOT coming back,” the White House account wrote on Friday.

The post was accompanied by a story from the Times with the headline “Senator meets with wrongly deported Maryland man in El Salvador”, now scribbled over with red lines and text to read, “Senator meets with deported MS-13 illegal alien in El Salvador who’s never coming back”.

The White House has since been branded “anti-American” following the post:

As well as “childish”:

Meanwhile, one account expressed excitement for the Trump administration being “held in contempt”, given the Supreme Court has ordered the government to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return:

And political commentator and content creator Harry Sisson pointed out the current administration previously admitted they wrongly deported Abrego Garcia:

Yikes.

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