Harming the Fight on MS-13

President Trump’s efforts against the ultraviolent MS-13 gang would be much more effective if he wasn’t warring on Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

On Friday, Trump flew to Long Island to speak to law-enforcement officials about federal efforts against the murderous MS-13 gang. He conspicuously failed to mention Sessions — his point man in that fight.

Yet the AG at that moment was in El Salvador, where the 40,000-member gang has deep roots. The day before, he’d observed a mass roundup of MS-13 members.

Sessions also met with his counterparts there to compare notes, plot strategy and organize an intercontinental anti-gang task force. How much harder was all that when his hosts had surely heard of the president’s slams of the AG?

Then, too, Sessions came to Suffolk County last month to discuss federal efforts to end MS-13’s reign of terror. It’s a goal he plainly shares with his boss.

Yet Trump has unceasingly attacked Sessions over his recusal from the Russia investigation, which — after Trump fired Jim Comey as FBI chief — set in motion the appointment of a special prosecutor.

In an interview with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson from El Salvador, the embattled Sessions on Thursday called Trump’s attacks “hurtful” but also said the president “wants all of us to do our jobs, and that’s what I intend to do.”

By all accounts, Sessions is doing his job on the MS-13 front.

The FBI has made MS-13 its No. 1 priority on Long Island — where the escalating violence includes 17 murders since 2016.

In calling out MS-13 on Friday, Trump struck the right notes as he pledged federal resources to find, arrest, jail and deport criminal alien gang members.

“We’re going to restore safety to our streets and peace to our communities, and we’re going to destroy the vile criminal cartel MS-13 and many other gangs,” Trump told his assembled audience of lawenforcement officers.

Eradicating MS-13 from our shores is a vital undertaking that requires Trump, Sessions and Congress to be on the same page.

Plus, Sessions is the best AG Trump can get for now. The Senate’s put him on notice that he’ll have trouble confirming any replacement. So all the slams do is distract the AG from his vital work.

Put the war on MS-13 first, Mr. President, and quit the potshots at your own “general.”