Milo Yiannopoulos, a far-right provocateur who actively promoted fringe conspiracies and racial controversies during his tenure in America, was officially deported to Great Britain on August 28, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Mr. Yiannopoulos, an early and staunch supporter of Donald Trump who eventually engaged in antisemitic rhetoric, was arrested on August 27 by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport for overstaying his visa. At least, that is the official narrative. A few weeks ago, Yiannopoulos accused loyal Trump supporter Laura Loomer of sexually servicing President Trump and waged a public war with rabid conservative podcaster Benny Johnson by accusing him of being a closeted gay man who has engaged in multiple affairs and meddling in the personal affairs of Elijah Schaffer, another right wing influencer. Apparently, this so enraged Loomer, Johnson and Schaffer that each of them apparently vowed to make him pay for his antics. Loomer did seem to be quite the happy pundit last week publicly taking credit for Yiannopoulos’ deportation.

For those of you who know nothing about Milo Yiannopoulos, let me break it down for you. He was previously deported almost a decade earlier after becoming an early and prominent supporter of Mr. Trump’s initial presidential campaign. His influence was fleeting at best. In a 2017 video, he advocated adult sexual relations with boys as young as 13 and seemed to minimize pedophilia by Roman Catholic priests. At the time, such disturbing comments cost him a lucrative book deal, then his position at Breitbart.com and an invitation to speak at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, also known as CPAC. One could argue that it is such a delicious irony that this adamantly anti-Muslim, pro-immigrant crackdown, pro-ICE, pro-deportation individual has now suddenly found himself a victim of such restrictive policies.

The better part of a decade ago, during a 2016 interview on the Joe Rogan podcast, he concluded that sexual relationships between adult men and teenage boys could be “beneficial.” He did not stop there. He said that, in some cases, such sexual relations are often “hugely positive.” He was not done yet. He opined that in many cases these older men often help younger boys “discover who they are.” Yes, you read that correctly! Understandably, condemnation from across the political spectrum was swift. In fact, many of his fellow employees at Breitbart threatened to resign if Yiannopoulos was not terminated for his remarks. He later blamed such perverse comments on “deceptive editing” in addition to his tendency to use “imprecise language.” He eventually added that he absolutely does not support pedophilia and that he had been the victim of sexual abuse as a young child.

WHEW! Well, thank goodness he believes that pedophilia is criminal and is unacceptable! Of course, if he was, in fact, the victim of sexual abuse at the hands of perverted and unscrupulous men, this was terrible, he deserves our sympathy, and the perpetrators deserve prosecution. There is no statute of limitations for pedophilia. Commentary aside, it is inconceivable to me that Yiannopoulos could have even harbored the most remote belief that sexual relationships between adults and children are healthy. They are not, period! Yiannopoulos is not the only guilty person in this sordid saga. It was widely known that he had a history of making outlandish, abrasive, and offensive comments about marginalized groups.

Yiannopoulos, a Greek-born, British-raised, half-Jewish, gay man, has had a deplorable history denouncing, denigrating, and disrespecting others. In fact, he seemed to take perverse and sadistic delight in doing so. Indeed, he has been all too eager to assist in the conservative right’s dirty work. He has routinely hurled vicious and salacious insults at immigrants; Muslims; certain Blacks (in particular Black Lives Matter); gays and lesbians (he says that he is no longer gay); transgender people; Hispanics; feminists; women in general; people with disabilities; and all those for whom many on the political, social, and cultural right (and far right in particular) reserve an intense disdain, viewing them with a politically and socially jaundiced eye and rabidly labeling them as “the other.” In an interview, he informed Tucker Carlson that “mainstreaming homosexuality in the Republican Party is the great regret of my life.”

Yiannopoulos’s own disqualifications, which many in this retrograde audience would accept, were intentionally overlooked, and he received a pass. These are the people for whom racism, antisemitism, misogyny, homophobia, xenophobia, etc. are de rigeur. Yiannopoulos also kept his eye on national politics, working on the 2024 presidential campaign of Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, who fell from grace after praising Adolf Hitler and making a series of antisemitic comments. On September 1st, he appeared on Piers Morgan Uncensored, a YouTube show presented by Piers Morgan, the British broadcaster and media personality.

He described the experience in the US as “humiliating and disorientating,” “physically degrading” and “frightening.” He further stated that he was “ashamed” of his previous support for Donald Trump, who has pursued a litany of mass deportation throughout his second presidency.“I didn’t really understand the physical reality of how institutionalized the brutality is in America” he said, adding: “It’s like everybody that’s arrested is an MS-13 gang member, and it hurts a lot more than it looks like on television.” Indeed, blind arrogance and callousness can catch up with people.

Last year, in posts on social media, Yiannopoulos had been a staunch supporter of Trump’s deportation program. In one post, he commented: “There is one concrete thing we must insist on this administration delivering. It matters a lot more than debts measured in imaginary money. We have got to deport millions and millions and millions of people. Without that, nothing else matters.” Oh, the karmic irony and reality that befell him!

Milo Yiannopoulos should have known from the outset that the “inclusion” afforded to him was temporary at best and came with strings attached. He would have to genuflect to his far-right audience and financial benefactors; he could never speak ill of true, genuine racists, homophobes, antisemites (if they were conservatives), xenophobes and others who revel in intolerance; and he had to hammer the left ruthlessly by increasingly ramping up his acerbic, acid-tongue rhetoric. By pleasing his benefactors, he would receive ample compensation from right-of-center business groups and conservative political organizations. His recent attacks on the Trump administration and, specifically, his alliance with certain right-wing personalities such as Kanye West, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Nick Fuentes, aroused the wrath of largely intolerant, mainstream conservatives.

Modern-day conservative politics is deeply populated with numerous officials and candidates who have demonstrated fierce and unmistakable allegiance toward Donald Trump and the larger MAGA movement. They had expected the commander-in-chief would reward such loyalty only to recognize the dispiriting and demoralizing realization that he would throw them to the wolves when they needed his support. Mike Pence, Kevin McCarthy, Reince Priebus, Mo Brooks, Ronna McDaniel, Elise Stefanik, etc. all suffered the same fate: Loyalty is something Trump expects to receive, not reciprocate. We can now add Milo Yiannopoulos to the list of the disregarded allies who learned this humiliating lesson.

No one should feel too sorry for Milo Yiannopoulos. Like many fabulists, he is likely plotting his return to the public arena. To quote P.T. Barnum, “there’s a sucker born every minute.” Thus, we can expect Milo to charm and weave his way successfully into the good graces of some gullible factions looking for a colorful personality, no matter how morally flawed or compromised. Milo Yiannopoulos is well suited for such a task.