HE GOT DEPORTED FOR A MEME

It sounds like something from a bad SNL sketch written by a libertarian intern: a Norwegian tourist arrives in America, gets pulled aside by border agents, and is deported for having a goofy meme of the Vice President on his phone. Except this wasn’t a joke. It wasn’t satire. It happened. It was real. And it was horrifying.

On June 11th, 2025, Mads Mikkelsen, 21, flew into Newark Liberty International Airport on June 11 with plans to visit friends in New York and Austin, then meet his mom to tour U.S. national parks. Instead, he was detained, interrogated, and expelled like a political dissident. Not for smuggling anything. Not for breaking the law. Not for carrying explosives or contraband.

But because his phone contained a meme of Vice President J.D. Vance — one that made him look “bald, bloated, and cartoonish.”

“They took me to a room with several armed guards, where I had to hand over my shoes, mobile phone, and backpack,” Mikkelsen told Nordlys. “I had travelled for twelve hours, slept poorly, and was physically and mentally completely exhausted even before they started the questioning.”

What followed was a gauntlet of absurdity that only makes sense if you understand how fragile this regime has become. Mikkelsen says U.S. immigration officials accused him of drug trafficking, asked if he was involved in terrorism or right-wing extremism, and ultimately threatened him with five years in prison or a $5,000 fine unless he unlocked his phone.

He complied. They found the meme. They didn’t laugh.

They also found a photo of a handmade wooden pipe, which he says was saved from a group chat. That was enough. They took a blood sample, fingerprinted him, held him in a cell, and deported him the same day.

“It felt like I was a terrorist suspect where I was sitting,” he said. “I tried to pull myself together several times, but in the end, I just wanted to get home again.”

The meme — reportedly shared after J.D. Vance heckled Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office — was an unflattering image, sure. But it was satire. It was digital mockery. It was freedom of expression.

The official response? Denial. Deflection. Bullshit.

“Mads Mikkelsen was not denied entry for any memes or political reasons,” CBP posted on X. “It was for his admitted drug use.”

Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for DHS, went even further: “FALSE” and “BS.”

They’re lying. Or worse — they’re too comfortable with their power to care whether it looks like a lie.

Mikkelsen says the meme was the trigger. He wasn’t stopped and asked about narcotics. He was told to unlock his phone. The meme came first. The interrogation followed. Then the blood draw. Then the plane ride back to Norway.

There were no charges. No violations. Just humiliation.

And if that sounds extreme, it’s because it is. It’s fascist behavior — petty, insecure, authoritarian theater performed by state agents with guns and thin skin. America, in its current form, just deported a European tourist for a fucking meme. And then tried to cover it up.

It raises the obvious question: if this is what happens to a tourist with a mildly disrespectful photo, what happens to someone carrying one of the more infamous JD Vance memes — you know the ones, the ones involving couches, leather upholstery, and Vance’s glassy-eyed worship face? What happens to someone who says out loud what we’re all thinking — that this man is a simpering bootlicker of a regime built on fear, projection, and delusion?

This is a government that couldn’t stop an insurrection in its own capital but somehow found time to chase down a kid with a meme. This is a country that lets domestic terrorists waltz through courtrooms but slams the door on a tired Norwegian because he mocked a man who has done nothing but embarrass himself on the world stage.

It is not an overreaction to call this fascist. It’s not hyperbole to say that when your phone becomes evidence and your sense of humor becomes probable cause, you don’t live in a free society anymore. You live in a paranoid, crumbling empire where the ruling class polices disrespect and calls it patriotism.

This isn’t about border security. It’s about control. And if they can control the border with memes, they’ll control everything else next.

Closer to the Edge reached out to no one for comment. We don’t need to. The truth is plain. This is where we are now. You can be detained, searched, deported, and lied about — not for what you did, but for what made someone powerful feel uncomfortable.

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Because if JD Vance’s ego is now a national security concern, we’re going to need a bigger budget for memes.