Comic Theo Von addressed the Division of Homeland Safety and stated their use of an outdated video clip in a DHS anti-immigration video with out his permission was “fucked up.”
“My father immigrated here from Nicaragua,” Von stated on Thursday’s episode of his podcast, “This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von.” “One of my prized possessions is I have his immigration papers [from] when he came here, and I have them in a frame.”
He continued: “So I have tons of thoughts about it, but this was just fucked up, right? It was fucked up.”
On Sept. 24, DHS posted a since-deleted video on its social media pages about deporting undocumented individuals from America. The start of the video makes use of an outdated clip of Von saying, “I heard you got deported, dude. Bye!” The remainder of the video then brags concerning the division’s deportation numbers whereas displaying photographs of individuals being arrested and upbeat music performs. The video ends with the textual content “Leave now” over a clip of a aircraft.
After DHS posted the video, Von known as out the division on social media, writing that he didn’t approve the utilization of his video or phrases, and requested them to take it down. The deportation video was deleted inside hours.
On Thursday’s episode, Von defined the story behind the clip that DHS used. He stated any person got here as much as him in a car parking zone about 1 1/2 years in the past and defined that her pal had simply been deported, and requested Von if he had a message for the pal.
“I didn’t know if it was real or not,” Von stated. “I was just joking around.”
He known as DHS’ video an “intense thing” and stated he has lots of totally different ideas about immigration, together with his perception that America is turning into a “surveillance state” the place “everyone is going to have to be on the books.”
“And why is the government even making these [videos],” Von requested. “I don’t know. But that’s where we’re at in the world.”
Von stated the incident made him really feel “paranoid.”
John Nacion by way of Getty Photos
DHS didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Von stated the following morning a “high government official” texted him and provided him additional safety, including that textual content “shook” him. He implied he did get safety.
Von, whom The New York Instances described as “one of the defining conversationalists of media’s new MAGA-friendly mainstream,” has been a supporter of President Donald Trump and his administration, selling Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on his podcast. Von even attended Trump’s inauguration in January.
Trump revealed in Could that his 19-year-old son, Barron Trump, informed his dad to go on Von’s podcast. Von carried out for service members in Could in Qatar whereas Trump was visiting.
“In fact, my son Barron said, ‘Dad, you’ve got to do an interview with’ somebody I hadn’t heard of, but my son knew very well — he knows everyone,” Trump reportedly informed service members throughout a go to at a navy base in Qatar. “He said, ‘Dad, you got to do an interview with a guy named Theo Von.’”
Von, nevertheless, has lately damaged with Trump on a number of key points, together with the U.S. intervention within the Israel-Iran battle earlier this yr in addition to Israel’s ongoing navy offensive in Gaza.
