President Donald Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions in the Oval Office. Associated Press/Pablo Martinez Monsivais

US President Donald Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions launched a rhetorical campaign this week against the MS13, one of the most violent gangs in Central America.

But the verbal offensive by the president and the attorney general, as well as their statements on the origins and evolution of the gang, are for the most part false or misleading.

The broadside included tweets by President Trump and comments made by the attorney general to law enforcement officials, as well as statements to the press, which compare the gang with other, much more sophisticated and developed criminal groups, such as Mexican and Colombian drug cartels.

On April 18, Trump tweeted that the "weak illegal immigration policies of the Obama administration" allowed the MS13 to develop in several US cities. The current president also said that his administration has been expelling gang members at rates never seen before.

In addition, speaking to Fox News, the president stated that the gangs are made up of "illegal immigrants that were here that caused tremendous crime. That have murdered people, raped people -- horrible things have happened. They're getting the hell out or they're going to prison."

On the same day that Trump made these comments, Sessions expressed similar thoughts in a separate TV interview and in a speech he gave to an elite group of federal officials, the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF).

Walter Geovani Salguero, 30, an inmate and member of El Salvador's Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang, at a pledge event in the Sonsonate jail, outside San Salvador, February 8, 2013. Reuters

Like Trump, Attorney General Sessions also blamed so-called "sanctuary cities," which forbid local police forces from cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, for facilitating the MS13's expansion.

As he had promised during his presidential campaign, upon assuming office Trump began threatening to cut federal funds to these cities if they refused to cooperate with ICE.

Only a few of the more than 100 sanctuary cities have given up their sanctuary status. Others that are home to large migrant communities, such as San Francisco; Hyattsville, Maryland; Houston; and Los Angeles have defied Trump.

In addition, Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly spoke about the MS13 at a public event held by George Washington University, in Washington, DC.

"They are utterly without laws, conscience, or respect for human life. They take the form of drug cartels, or international gangs like MS13, who share their business dealings and violent practices. Their sophisticated networks move anything and everything across our borders, including human beings," Kelly said.

Each of these comments comes with its flaws, and at the very least distorts the reality and obscures the strategies that should be followed to tackle the MS13 threat. In an effort to shed more light on this complex issue, InSight Crime has listed seven aspects of these statements in which the Trump administration is plainly mistaken.