Podcaster and comedian Theo Von torched the Department of Homeland Security late Tuesday for using a video of him discussing deportations to promote its own deportation numbers, urging them to take it down and cease their use of his likeness.
The DHS video, posted earlier on Tuesday, features a clip of Von filming himself saying, “Heard you got deported, dude. Bye!” It then shares a compilation of statistics boasting about the number of deportations over a two-month period.
However, Von blasted the video on social media, saying he never gave the department permission to use his clip.
“Yooo DHS I didn’t approve to be used in this,” he shared on X. “I know you know my address so send a check. And please take this down and please keep me out of your ‘banger’ deportation videos. When it comes to immigration my thoughts and heart are a lot more nuanced than this video allows. Bye!”
The department did not respond to an immediate request for comment. The video remains live.
The rebuke represented a more pronounced turn from a Donald Trump-aligned podcaster who has already wavered from the MAGA line. Trump’s appearance on Von’s podcast last year was credited with boosting his support among men, and Von received both a shoutout after Trump won the election and an invitation to the inauguration.
But Trump’s actions throughout his second term have angered those in the so-called “manosphere” of podcasters who gravitated toward the president, including Von and podcaster Joe Rogan. Von called Trump’s decision to bomb Iran a “horrible idea” that made it seem like Trump was “working for Israel.”
“I felt like it was supposed to be America First, like, we’re focusing on what are we doing to get things back into America,” Von said in July. “And then now that we’re caught up here, and it feels like we are just working for Israel. I think to a lot of people, you just really start to feel very disillusioned pretty quickly.”
