CNN Confronts Milo Yiannopoulos With His Own Pro-ICE Posts Following Detention
Key Takeaways
- •CNN's Brianna Keilar resurfaced old tweets in which Milo Yiannopoulos expressed support for aggressive ICE enforcement after he was detained by ICE at a New Orleans airport.
- •A 2025 tweet cited by Keilar called for ICE checkpoints throughout California and on-the-spot deportation of those unable to prove legal U.S. status.
- •The Department of Homeland Security identifies Yiannopoulos as a British national, and Bill Kristol noted he would likely be returned to London.
- •Kristol said Yiannopoulos was receiving a measure of his own medicine after previously gloating about the deportation of others.
- •Kristol criticized the administration's mass deportation policies, including the removal of Temporary Protected Status from roughly 300,000 Haitians.
CNN anchor Brianna Keilar resurfaced old tweets on Friday in which far-right provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos voiced support for Immigration and Customs Enforcement — after he was detained by that very agency at a New Orleans airport.
Recalling posts in which Yiannopoulos backed aggressive ICE enforcement, Keilar observed: "Just a year ago, Yiannopoulos appeared to be quite supportive of ICE's approach." One 2025 tweet she cited read: "California needs ICE checkpoints at supermarket entrances, gas stations, strip malls, intersections, and government buildings with on-the-spot deportation for anyone who can't prove they're in the U.S. legally."
Yiannopoulos, a former Breitbart editor who rose to prominence during the 2016 campaign cycle as a provocateur and later worked briefly as an unpaid intern in Kanye West's 2024 campaign operation, has a long history of inflammatory rhetoric on immigration and other issues. His detention now places him among the noncitizens swept up in the Trump administration's expanded deportation drive, which has relied on expedited removal and broadened enforcement priorities.
Keilar then asked veteran political commentator Bill Kristol for his reaction, and how he assessed the Trump administration's messaging around Yiannopoulos's arrest.
"I don't know if they're going to message about it or they're just showing, 'See, we want to deport anyone who's here illegally,'" Kristol said. "I mean, they are fanatics about mass deportation. We shouldn't, we really can't lose sight of the forest for the trees."
Kristol argued that Yiannopoulos is "getting a little bit of maybe his own medicine here since he was gloating about the deportation of others, especially people with dark-color skins or foreign accents and so forth."
According to the Department of Homeland Security, Yiannopoulos is a British national, meaning "he's going to be put on a plane back to London," Kristol noted. "He's not going back to the Central African Republic like some people from Central America are being deported in the middle of the night there," he said.
"He's not like these 300,000 Haitians who came here, got Temporary Protected Status, contributed to their communities, had low crime rates, were living lawful lives here in the U.S.," Kristol added. "The administration removes their Temporary Protected Status, and presto, they're illegal."
