Comedian Dom Joly has claimed his US entry application was rejected after he shared a series of negative social media posts about President Donald Trump.
The Trigger Happy TV star, 58, has long criticised the Republican leader, with more comical online posts comparing him to a kebab and editing his face onto one, while others blasted him for ‘being racist and sexually attacking women’.
Joly has now shared that his Esta (Electronic System for Travel Authorisation) application – a programme that typically permits British travellers to visit America without obtaining a formal visa – was turned down, catching him off guard.
Speaking on Times Radio, he said of the rejection: ‘Because of my social media anti-Trumpisms, I don’t think I’d be allowed in.
‘I think a lot of people I know are a bit nervous about the US at the moment, not nervous safety-wise but just nervous if they will get in.’
He added: ‘I don’t hold back on Trump or his ilk, but it is very odd.’
Joly also said he ‘knows a lot of people it’s happened to’.
‘I know several who’ve taken burner phones out there. I think you should take a burner phone, is the answer.’
Searches through Joly’s activity on X show him previously branding him an ‘out-of-touch billionaire celebrity’ and saying he ‘floundered like a fish’ in one political debate.
In another tweet, he said Democrat Joe Biden was ‘sadly, not a very good’ president, later adding: ‘Firstly, because Trump was a dangerous, narcissistic, corrupt, mouth-breather beacon. Compared to him Biden is a calm, if slightly dull, temporary presence.’
Additionally, Joly ripped into Trump during his state visit, posting a video of himself watching the welcome reception in Windsor.
He added in his Facebook caption: ‘I mean what??? Just what???? We are doomed…#trump’.
Speaking over the footage of the US politician, he raged: ‘What the f**k is this? It’s just insane.
‘Look at this sex abuser.’
‘I was watching this joke at Windsor Castle with the orange s**t gibbon, Trump, sitting there brooding away while we all have to pander to him,’ he said in another video the following day.
And after Trump said crime rates in London were ‘crazy’, accusing police of not patrolling some areas of the UK – which Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Mark Rowley branded ‘complete nonsense’ – Joly proceeded to mock him.
Earlier this month, he filmed himself driving through the capital in a taxi, writing alongside it: ‘Incredibly dangerous road trip through Trump’s hellscape London.’
Prankster Joly has enjoyed success in America already in his career, thanks to a spin-off of hidden camera show Trigger Happy TV on Comedy Central USA.
His other work has involved shows for BBC, prime-time Saturday night comedy on ITV, a Channel 4 revival of Trigger Happy in 2016, and, beyond stand-up comedy, writing travel books.
Joly’s latest remarks come after reports that tourists from dozens of countries – including the UK – could be asked to provide five years’ worth of social media history as a condition of travelling to the US.
Under a new proposal by American officials, this could affect those who would typically be eligible to visit the United States for 90 days without a visa, as long as they have completed an Esta form.
Currently, the Esta requires little information from potential travellers in comparison, as well as a one-off payment of $40 (£30).
Trump, who retook office in January, continues his attempts to crack down on border control, citing national security as his reason, but dismissed the idea that tourism levels could plummet if such restrictions were introduced.
‘No. We’re doing so well,’ he said. ‘We just want people to come over here, and safe. We want safety. We want security.
‘We want to make sure we’re not letting the wrong people come enter our country.’
The new Esta proposal is not ‘final’, however, with the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) saying, at the moment, ‘nothing has changed on this front for those coming to the United States.’
‘It is simply the first step in starting a discussion to have new policy options to keep the American people safe.’
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