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It was bullshit from Snopes (and AP) then, and it remains bullshit.
Neither the text nor the context of Trump’s remarks establish that he was speaking only about MS-13 (not that that would excuse it). It was even then post-hoc manipulation to derail criticism of dehumanizing language and it’s being deployed again.
So @davidfolkenflik just retweeted this into my timeline, completing a full day of mainstream reporters adopting a misleading line to tamp down any renewed discussion of Trump’s dehumanizing language and abet a torrent of abuse from pro-Trump figures.
As it seems a campaign of gaslighting is well on its way to prevailing, I thought a few words might be in order to try to illuminate how we got to this point. Hope you’ll forgive me a longer thread.
In May 2018, a local sheriff prompted Trump with a scenario in which she *suspects* an immigrant of being in MS-13 but does not have enough evidence to get ICE to act on her suspicions. Trump didn’t wait for her to articulate a question and launched into his comments. 
Trump’s words do not reference MS-13 or even people suspected of MS-13 membership without legally sufficient evidence (i.e., the real context). His words address “people coming into the country, or trying to come in” and a subset whom his administration is “taking ... out.”
Trump observes that his audience “wouldn’t believe how bad” are the people his administration is removing from the country (i.e., deportees), and that observation leads him to revise his description of the group. “They are not people,” he says. “They are animals.”
The immediate aftermath of these objectively dehumanizing comments about all deportees looked—for a hot second—like a thing. The language was so extreme, so redolent of the Nazis’ rhetoric, that the growing backlash appeared to present a real peril to the Trump admin.
The speed and fury of the pushback mounted by pro-Trump forces corresponded to the perceived peril. Trump’s remarks had been taken OUT OF CONTEXT and referred EXCLUSIVELY TO MS-13, they insisted, implausibly, calling people who accurately described the remarks “liars” and worse.
The backlash was aided by CNN’s @oliverdarcy, who published a piece portraying coverage of Trump’s remarks as false, at the same time hedging his own claim: “it appears likely” Trump meant violent gang members. money.cnn.com/2018/05/17/med…
Mainstream outlets mostly knuckled under against this onslaught, retracting tweets and issuing corrections noting “the context.” Notably, WaPo stood by its original reporting.
Hardly anyone pointed out the true context—a sheriff’s unsubstantiated suspicion of an immigrant.
Hardly anyone pointed out the true context—a sheriff’s unsubstantiated suspicion of an immigrant.
Trump himself adopted his defenders’ line, saying a day later that he had meant MS-13. And the story faded away. In the accelerated news cycle of the Trump era, it didn’t end up making much of a lasting impression.
Then, about eleven months passed. @markmobility reposted the video of Trump’s remarks this weekend, describing him as talking exclusively about asylum seekers.
That claim, to be sure, is not fully accurate. Still it’s *no less accurate* than the MS-13 claim that reporters have adopted and ratified. Under Trump’s policies, both gang members and asylum seekers are potentially part of the broad group Trump actually described—deportees.
Pro-Trump types and some reporters are frustrated that an old story they’d found a way to dismiss came back. But it’s worth recognizing that part of the reason it came back so strongly is Trump’s remarks are objectively shocking and the defense of them last year was unsound.
