Joe Exotic, who rose to fame from his role as the titular king in Netflix’s docuseries Tiger King, is begging Donald Trump not to deport his fiance, Jorge Marquez Flores. Marquez Flores is an immigrant of an unknown status and an inmate.
Trump made his plans for a “mass deportation” and his antipathy towards immigrant inmates very clear in the 2024 election. Exotic has been a vocal supporter of Trump.
Related
Joe Exotic weighs in on Bud Light drama from prison & says he’s the “world’s favorite” transphobe
It’s been over three months since the controversy began, but the Tiger King decided it’s finally time to make his voice heard.
“They took him away from me today to deport him 2 days before my birthday,” Exotic – whose real last name is Maldonado, which he took when he married his late husband Travis Maldonado – wrote on Instagram. Exotic is currently serving a 21-year sentence on charges related to animal abuse and attempting to hire a hitman to kill animal rights activist Carole Baskin, while Marquez Flores was serving time for immigration-related issues in the same Texas federal prison.
Insights for the LGBTQ+ community
Subscribe to our briefing for insights into how politics impacts the LGBTQ+ community and more.
Subscribe to our Newsletter today
Exotic then asked Trump to let him out of prison so that he could “save” Marquez Flores, and he brought up Trump’s proposal to create a “gold” immigration card to sell for $5 million. “I will give you my first 5 million I make to get one of those gold cards if that’s what it takes,” Exotic promised, not explaining how he would get $5 million.
Exotic announced his engagement to Marquez Flores last year.
“I wish someone that is President or wins the Presidency would do the right thing and pardon me so I could move past this nightmare that my own country has caused for the last 7 years of my life,” he wrote in the announcement at the time. He said that the only reason he is in prison is because people are “very jealous” of his zoo.
Exotic said that it was his goal to marry Marquez Flores and help get him asylum status.
Exotic’s ex-husband Joseph Passage, who he divorced in 2023, said in 2020 that Exotic was “a really big Trump supporter.”
Earlier this year, Exotic posted to social media that Trump “forgot” him, referring to how Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of over 1500 criminals on his first day in office, but not Exotic.
“Hell the guy who killed 2 FBI Agents even got a pardon today,” Exotic wrote at the time. “I can’t even get a new trial.”
Subscribe to the LGBTQ Nation newsletter and be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.