President Donald Trump’s administration is seizing on the upcoming episode of the hit cartoon series “South Park” to recruit new Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. The show’s official social media account didn’t allow the moment to pass without offering its input.
Variety reported Tuesday that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) used a still from the newest South Park episode — which is reportedly going to satirize the Trump administration’s immigration raids — to promote its ICE recruitment efforts. The South Park X account quote-posted the DHS’ tweet with the text: “Wait, so we ARE relevant?” The show then added the hashtag “#eatabagofd—-” to its post.
The South Park account’s post is a reference to the Trump administration’s initially frosty reception to the newest season’s debut episode, which premiered in July. Following the episode — which featured an AI-generated deepfake of Trump wandering through a desert while gradually removing his clothes — White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers called South Park a “fourth-rate show” that “hasn’t been relevant for over 20 years.”
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“The Left’s hypocrisy truly has no end — for years they have come after South Park for what they labeled as ‘offense’ [sic] content, but suddenly they are praising the show,” Rogers stated to Rolling Stone. “Just like the creators of South Park, the Left has no authentic or original content, which is why their popularity continues to hit record lows.”
Paramount — which recently settled with Trump over his lawsuit against CBS’ “60 Minutes” for $16 million — also bought the rights to South Park for the next five years for $1.5 billion ahead of the new season’s debut. Creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker previously said they weren’t interested in criticizing Trump as they had nothing new to say about him, though the newest season of the animated series pillories the second Trump administration in numerous ways.
The latest episode will air on Wednesday, August 6 on the Paramount+ streaming platform.
Click here to read Variety’s full report.
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