Theo Von Tells ICE to Pay Up for Using His Face in Deportation Propaganda
If you’ve ever wondered what disaffected 24-year-olds are doing for money, at least a few of them are scouring through Theo Von's social media posts and clipping his videos into anti-immigrant propaganda for the U.S. government. In a now-deleted video posted to the official Department of Homeland Security X account, a video of Von saying “Heard you got departed dude, bye,” was spliced into a 30-second video celebrating the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts.
Von wasn’t happy that his video — in which he genuinely did say “Heard you got departed dude, bye” — was used by the government. “Yooo DHS I didn’t approve to be used in this,” he wrote. “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 alot more nuanced than this video allows. Bye!”
Those “nuanced opinions” can be seen in a video he posted in June. “I love Mexicans. I would like to be Mexican next time,” Von said in a response to a listener’s voicemail asking about his stance on ICE. “I’ve prayed for that. God knows that. So, if something ever happens to me, please look out for me.”
Don't Miss
He continued by saying that he believed at least half of the videos coming out of the L.A. deportation sweeps were “not real” and “staged” to create “conflict.”
“Obviously, there’s a lot of deportations going on,” Von added. “It’s sick when you see children crying and people being taken from their parents. It’s heartbreaking. Anybody thinks that that’s heartbreaking. Now, there’s also in the country there’s, you know, you have rules, you have laws. And some people are here, they’re illegal. They’re illegal by the letter of the law. Technically, they’re undocumented. Right now, 40 percent of people that are here illegally are Mexican, right? Sixty percent are not.”
Trump, Von said, is “heavy-handed” and when “the hammer starts to come down,” it will be “uncomfortable.” The video continues for a full 10 minutes, none of which is very ideologically coherent.
As some people on X pointed out, Von’s video, which was reportedly filmed for a fan who requested the video for a friend who actually did get deported, was perfect fodder for the Trump administration partly because of Von’s own track record. He’s been very friendly to the right, conducting podcast interviews with everyone from Trump and JD Vance to Candace Owens and Joe Rogan.
Von would frame this to being open to all ideas. But that “receptiveness” has created a wide open door for bad actors to use his political vagueness and mass appeal for their own agendas. In this case, it was DHS’ objective to manufacture consent for the terror campaign they’re raining down on some of the most vulnerable communities in this country.
Might want to pick a side, Theo. Otherwise, the Trump administration seems intent on doing it for you.
