an interview and a tattoo

I saw a replay a day or two ago of an interview with President Trump that touched on his refusal to obey a Supreme Court order to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the US from a contract prison in El Salvador.

The interview is the most recent in a series of interactions with the press that appear to show the president to be suffering from the same kind of age-related mental deterioration evident in former president Biden during the last days of his term in office.

Asked if he would obey the Supreme Court directive, Mr. Trump said that he could do so with a single telephone call if he wished–but would not. Why? He produced a large photograph of the back of the prisoner’s hand, showing “MS13” in black letters across it …proof, Mr. Trump said, of KAG’s gang membership.

The interviewer replied that the letters had been photoshopped onto the picture.

the strange parts

–Mr. Trump appeared not to know what Photoshop is, despite its being around for over a quarter century as the centerpiece of Adobe’s Creative Cloud, which has 37 million paid users. Is he actually so out of touch?

–in 15+ years of being around Photoshop as a photographer, I can’t recall seeing a photo where less effort was put into making a fake look realistic than this one. In particular:

—-the color of the MS13 characters is substantially darker than the real tattoos;

—-the pinkie is at about a 30 degree angle away from the camera–the skull tattoo on the pinkie reflects this, but the 3 is squarely aligned with the camera view, and, oddly, rotated slightly to the right;

—-all four characters are slightly misaligned with the tattoos below them;

—-the the edges of the MS13 characters are razor straight, with none of the ink spreading evident in the real tattoos;

—-the M and the 3 appear to be directly on top of the knuckles. The internet tells me this isn’t the norm.

So, either Mr. Trump has been duped by staff member(s) with weak Photoshop skills, or he’s presenting the photo as evidence despite knowing it’s a fake. Neither one is a good look. Neither is a great reason for investing in the US.