Til death – or ICE – do they part.
Joe Exotic, the eccentric star of the hit Netflix series Tiger King, was recently on social media asking President Donald Trump for a pardon and making him an interesting offer: He would self-deport to Mexico with his illegal immigrant husband if he were released by Trump.
Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, is currently behind bars after being convicted in 2020 on two federal charges related to hiring a hitman to kill rival zoo owner Carole Baskin, as well as violations related to the Endangered Species Act and falsifying wildlife records. He was sentenced to 22 years in prison, but since being locked up he’s been fighting his convictions while also hoping to get some help from the president.
But just because he’s locked up doesn’t mean he hasn’t been able to find love in the clink.
Exotic’s most recent husband is an illegal immigrant named Jorge Marquez Flores, who was previously locked up with the Netflix star on immigration-related charges. Exotic first posted about his new fiancé from his Twitter account back in October of 2024, announcing that the two were engaged after meeting in prison.
And he even came up with an offer for President Trump that would allow the couple to get married and live happily ever after: They would both self-deport to Mexico.
“You could deport him at some point, but if you let me go, we’ll both go to Mexico, which will save you the cost of deporting him and allow you to take care of me. No matter what happens, he’s my husband, and we’ll never abandon each other. This bond is that strong.”
Well unfortunately Trump didn’t take the former owner of the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park up on his offer.
Exotic announced last month that the two had finally gotten married – but they didn’t get much of a honeymoon, because on Friday he said that Flores had been released from prison and immediately taken to an ICE detention facility for a deportation hearing. (He also shared a photo on Instagram of some artwork that Jorge left Joe to remember him by…and I’m pretty sure it’s prints of his butthole).
And apparently his stay in the detention facility didn’t last long, because TMZ reports that Flores was deported back to Mexico on Friday immediately after being released from prison.
Exotic says that he’s continuing his campaign for a pardon from Trump, while praising his new husband for giving him “the most loving” 10 months of his life:
“Jorge gave me the most loving and devoted 10 months of my life. I pray God will give me the chance to experience life with him again.”
Ten months? That’s true love right there.
Of course his bid for freedom is a longshot at this point, and is going to depend on whether Trump is willing to give him a pardon. But the president has already issued quite a few grants of clemency during his first few months in office, and we know he has a soft spot for people targeted by the government, so it’s not entirely out of the question that Exotic may get a break from Trump.
And it sounds like if he does, he’ll be headed south of the border with the (latest) love of his life.
