Trump is a stupid, stupid, stupid man
A commenter on my Facebook feed chastised us for believing that even Trump was THAT stupid, and we were duly chastened. What were we thinking? Obviously, everyone understood that the printed letters on Kilmar Ábrego García’s knuckles were there to identify the meaning of his tattoos, and were not part of the tattoos themselves.
The obviously photoshopped sans serif labels spelling “M S 1 3,” that kind of floated above the knuckles like a badly printed advertisement, lacked only photoshopped red arrows from each letter to the tattoo they purported to represent. Of COURSE even Trump, the so-called president of the United States, understood that!
Once again we made the same mistake we have made before. We underestimated how stupid Trump really is. “No,” we said to ourselves, “Trump isn’t that stupid. Not even Trump is that stupid.” But he is, he is, and our astonishment keeps getting in the way of our experience.
Not only is Trump that stupid, but he’s stupid enough to lash out at ABC journalist Terry Moran in the Oval Office for suggesting that the photoshopped (or Microsoft Paint-ed) “MS-13” label is NOT actually tattooed on Kilmar Ábrego García’s knuckles. Even though clearly it is not.
Moran — after several times politely begging to differ and trying to move to a new topic — finally pointed out that the image Trump was referring to had obviously been digitally altered. “Why don’t you just say yes?” Trump demanded. “Why don’t you just say, ‘Yes, he does’ [have a gang tattoo] and, you know, go on to something else?”
The confusion stems from when Trump’s goons tried to make the case that the tattoos on García’s knuckles, of a marijuana leaf, a smiley face, a Christian cross and a skull symbolically spelled out “MS-13.” The truth is actual MS-13 gang members aren’t subtle about their affiliation, and usually spell out “MS-13” with the actual letters, and not winking symbologies.
Experts across the board agree. “I don’t believe a dangerous individual would have such anodyne and farcically generic tattoos on his hand,” said Liliana Castaneda Rossmann, a California State University San Marcos emerita professor of communication and author of the book Transcending Gangs: Latinas Story Their Experience. Sean Kennedy, a former federal public defender said that, in his experience, representing and interacting with current and former MS-13 members, “The tattoos in the photo don’t look familiar to me.”
The real question is, why are we surprised that Trump went even further than his gang of thugs intended, by misidentifying the labels as the tattoos themselves? Who remembers “Sharpiegate”? That was when, in 2019, Trump took a Sharpie and drew a crude and obvious extension on a hurricane’s path of influence to include Alabama, “proving” that he was “right” when he listed Alabama as one of the states potentially in danger. Does anyone actually think that, six years later, Trump’s going to be smarter?
We have to remember that we’re not dealing with an adult. Trump is a whiny little man baby, confused and disoriented, out of his depth in a world where only grownups can survive. Like a bunch of indulgent mothers, sycophants surround and encourage his blunders, lies and missteps as if he’s some kind of genius. He is not. He is a stupid, stupid, stupid man, and he has the nuclear codes. We must never forget that.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.