Skip to main content
LBC logo
On Air Now
Listen Now

12pm to 3pm

Listen Now

11am to 3pm

Deported Milo Yiannopoulos admits he's 'ashamed' of having supported Donald Trump following 'degrading' ICE detention

The Controversial right-wing British commentator said he did not understand “the physical reality of how institutionalised the brutality is in America” until he was detained by US immigration officials.

Share

Breitbart tech editor Milo Yiannopoulos
Picture: Alamy

Controversial right-wing British commentator Milo Yiannopoulos has said he did not understand “the physical reality of how institutionalised the brutality is in America” until he was detained by US immigration officials.

Listen to this article

Loading audio...

Mr Yiannopoulos was returned to the UK on Friday after being arrested at the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport in Louisiana on Thursday having failed to appear at an immigration hearing.

He has referred to himself as “the most fabulous supervillain on the internet”, championed alt-right talking points on feminism, Islam and immigrants – and been especially supportive of US President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

In his first interview since being deported, Mr Yiannopoulos told Piers Morgan Uncensored: “I don’t think I’ve ever been frightened like that before.”

He added: “I didn’t really understand the physical reality of how institutionalised the brutality is in America. The manner in which they arrest you.

“They put you in manacles, your hands, your feet, chained together. Everybody is arrested like an MS-13 gang member. And it hurts a lot more than it looks like on television.

“I was put from a detention facility to a correctional facility, every three hours, they were sort of trying to keep ahead of my lawyers… no-one would tell me anything.

“I mean, I know it’s designed to be like that, but it was humiliating and it was disorientating all the rest of it, it was physically degrading. It was frightening.”

President Donald Trump raising a fist during Super Bowl LIX at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. (USA)
President Donald Trump . Picture: Alamy

Mr Yiannopoulos said he is now “ashamed” of having supported Mr Trump, characterising the administration as “ugly, warmongering, whole mentally ill heap of crazy – with some of the most unstable and lunatic people, seemingly directing the president’s actions”.

He added: “If I had any clue that anything remotely like this was even possible, I would never have got involved in supporting Trump in the first place and I’m very ashamed that I did.”

Mr Yiannopoulos told the programme that he has “a big mouth” but has never been in trouble with the police and does not break the law.

“I’m not a violent person. I’m not a thief and I’m very careful about my paperwork,” he said.

Milo Yiannopoulos Holds Press Conference To Discuss Controversy Over Statements
Milo Yiannopoulos Holds Press Conference To Discuss Controversy Over Statements. Picture: Getty

Mr Yiannopoulos said he learned of his arrest when 15 agents “swarmed” him at the airport and he then did not eat for 24 hours.

“I was promised a nurse that never came. Promised a phone call, it never came. I was promised all kinds of things that never came… This was not a normal, lawful, process,” he claimed.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said on Saturday: “Yiannopoulos legally entered the country on May 14 2019, through New York City, New York. He chose to overstay his welcome in violation of our nation’s laws.

“Yiannopoulos was issued a final order of removal by an immigration judge on July 22, after failing to show up for his immigration hearing. He will remain in Ice custody pending removal.”

They added that being in detention was a “choice” as the US government is offering money and free flights for people to “self deport”.

In the early 2010s Mr Yiannopoulos was recruited to the Breitbart website by Mr Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon, and was known to refer to Mr Trump as “daddy”.

He resigned from the company in 2017 after a video of him endorsing paedophilia resurfaced online, and later apologised for the remarks and said he had been a victim of sexual assault as a minor.

He more recently ran a short-lived presidential campaign for the rapper Ye (formerly Kanye West) and reportedly worked as an intern for former congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Asked for Ye’s reaction, he told Piers Morgan Uncensored: “My boss and his wife were just worried that I was OK. We were in touch. And I’ve been back to work for two days. I manage his lawyers, which I can do from anywhere.”