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Podcaster and comic Theo Von disavowed the use of a clip of him in a now-deleted Department of Homeland Security (DHS) video on social media.“Yooo DHS i (sic) didn’t approve to be used in this,” Von wrote in a late Sept. 23 post on X. “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 (sic) more nuanced than this video allows. Bye!”The DHS video has since been removed from the department’s profile. Copies of the video remain on social media and appear to show Von saying, “Heard you got deported, dude, bye.” The department then, in the clip that shows footage of what appears to be deportations, claims that 2 million deportations occurred in 250 days.The video of Von appears to have been pulled from a November TikTok post by Karys Reigh Rigtrup. The caption on the post reads: “What happens when you tell Theo that your bf (sic) couldn’t make it to the show because they didn’t allow him in America.”Who is Theo Von?Von, 45, is the host of “This Past Weekend,” which is currently ranked as the second most popular podcast on Spotify as of Wednesday, Sept. 24. Von’s show is only behind “The Joe Rogan Experience,” according to Spotify’s podcast charts.In an April profile, The New York Times described Von as “one of the defining conversationalists of media’s new MAGA-friendly mainstream,” writing that he is difficult to pigeonhole both politically and culturally.He interviewed both President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance during the 2024 campaign, and had another episode with the vice president in early June.Von also performed during Trump’s visit to the U.S. Air Force at the Al-Udeid Air Base in Doha in May.Contributing: Anthony Robledo, Kathryn Palmer – USA TODAY
