Trump blames Obama for allowing violent MS-13 gang to form in the US -- which took hold in the early 2000s
Donald Trump speaking with supporters at a campaign rally at the Prescott Valley Event Center in Prescott Valley, Arizona (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)

President Donald Trump is back to his pre-dawn tweeting. Tuesday morning, Trump attacked former President Barack Obama for "allowing" a Central American gang to form in the United States. However, the new president's facts are lacking in accuracy.


“The weak illegal immigration policies of the Obama Admin. allowed bad MS 13 gangs to form in cities across U.S. We are removing them fast!” Trump tweeted at 5:39 a.m.

According to Politico, the MS 13 gang actually formed in the U.S. in the early 2000s well before Obama was president. The Central American gang developed by Salvadorans escaping a civil war in the 1980s. In 2004, the FBI created a task force “to investigate this violent international street gang." By the time Obama was elected, the gang spread to 42 states and Washington, D.C.

Obama became known as the Deporter in Chief by many Latinos for deporting more undocumented immigrants than any president. In fact, Obama deported more undocumented immigrants than every president in the 20th century combined.

“I'm talking about illegal immigrants that were here that caused tremendous crime that have murdered people, raped people; horrible things have happened. They are getting the hell out, or they are going to prison,” Trump told Fox and Friends. “It is a serious problem and we never did anything about it, and now we're doing something about it.”