BRENTWOOD, N.Y. (AP) — President Donald Trump is pledging to "destroy" the violent MS-13 street gang and other similar organizations.
He says he's more focused on MS-13 because it is "particularly violent." Trump says MS-13's members don't like to shoot their victims because death comes too fast. He says MS-13 members prefer to knife and cut their victims, so they die slowly and more painfully.
Trump says of MS-13: "These are animals."
The president addressed law enforcement officials and relatives of crime victims in Brentwood, in Suffolk County, New York, where MS-13, or Mara Salvatrucha, has committed a string of gruesome murders, including the April killing of four young men.