A Norwegian tourist claims his American vacation turned into a nightmare after U.S. border agents allegedly denied him entry because of a meme — one mocking Vice President JD Vance.
Mads Mikkelsen, 21, was traveling from Norway to visit friends in New York and Texas when he says U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
officers searched his phone and found an altered image of Vance with a bald, egg-shaped head. Continues…
According to Mads, that meme alone triggered a 12-hour ordeal, complete with intense questioning, a strip search, and ultimately deportation back to Oslo.
“I felt prejudged, suspected and humiliated,” Mads told Norwegian outlet Nordlys. “They asked about drug smuggling, terrorist plots and right-wing extremism without cause.”
He says CBP officials threatened him with prison time and a $5,000 fine unless he gave up his phone password. Once inside, agents allegedly deemed two images problematic: the now-viral Vance meme and a photo of Mads holding a homemade wooden pipe.
“The images were automatically saved from a chat app. I never imagined they’d cost me my trip,” he said.
CBP pushes back: “Not about a meme”
But U.S. authorities tell a very different story.
CBP publicly denied the meme had anything to do with it.
“Fact Check
