A Norwegian tourist says he was blocked from entering the U.S. after border agents found a meme mocking Vice President JD Vance on his phone.
Mads Mikkelsen, 21, told Norwegian newspaper Nordlys that he landed at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey when things took a strange turn.
Without any explanation, Mikkelsen said, agents pulled him aside, locked him in a holding cell, and grilled him “about drug trafficking, terrorist plots, and right-wing extremism.”
He claims they told him he’d face a $5,000 fine unless he handed over his phone. That’s when agents found the meme—a doctored image of JD Vance with a bald head, swollen face, and a stiff, unnatural stare. They also flagged a photo of Mikkelsen with a homemade wooden pipe.
“I told them the photos were a joke,” Mikkelsen said. “But they still searched me and forced me to give blood samples and document my fingerprints.”
“I felt like a terrorist suspect,” he said.
Former GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger shared the meme online, sarcastically writing: “Would be a shame if this picture spread again. Man ‘refused entry into US’ as border control catch him with bald JD Vance meme.”
According to Dublin Live, it’s unclear whether Mikkelsen said or did anything else to spark the aggressive response. But he said he was “exhausted” after the long transatlantic flight.
After hours in custody, he says U.S. officials kicked him out and put him on a return flight to Tromsø, his hometown in northern Norway.
No official comment has been made by U.S. immigration authorities.
