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Far-right political commentator and Kanye West ally Milo Yiannopoulos has been detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
Online records viewed by Us on Friday, August 28, confirmed that Yiannopoulos, 41, was taken into ICE custody in Louisiana. (TMZ was first to report the news.)
It is not immediately clear what Yiannopoulos was doing in Louisiana, though West, 49, is scheduled to perform at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans on Friday.
Us has reached out to representatives for Yiannopoulos for comment.
Yiannopoulos has been associated with divisive far-right leaders, including interning for former Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and working with white nationalist Nick Fuentes. He was infamously banned from Twitter (now X) in 2016 for allegedly leading a campaign of online abuse against comedian Leslie Jones.
He later served as a campaign adviser during West’s unsuccessful 2024 presidential campaign and then worked as his personal chief of staff until they parted ways that same year.
At the time, Yiannopoulos told TMZ that he had departed West’s staff amid the rapper’s plans to launch a “Yeezy Porn” studio. (The “Yeezy Porn” project never got off the ground.)
“I wish Ye every success in the future. I have some concerns about his new team, and hope he proceeds with caution,” he said.
Earlier this year, West repudiated many of the antisemitic and pro-Nazi views he espoused during his brief association with Yiannopoulos, explaining that he had fallen into a spiral of “psychotic, paranoid and impulsive behavior.” (West has previously said that he was diagnosed as bipolar type 1 in 2016.)
“My words as a leader in my community have global impact and influence. In my mania, I lost complete sight of that,” he wrote in a January column for the Wall Street Journal. “As I find my new baseline and new center through an effective regime of medication, therapy, exercise, and clean living, I have newfound, much-needed clarity.”
West directly addressed accusations of antisemitism, explaining, ”One of the difficult aspects of having bipolar type-1 are the disconnected moments — many of which I still cannot recall — that led to poor judgment and reckless behavior that oftentimes feels like an out-of-body-experience.”
“I regret and am deeply mortified by my actions in that state, and am committed to accountability, treatment, and meaningful change. It does not excuse what I did though. I am not a Nazi or an antisemite. I love Jewish people,” he continued.
Later that month, West told Vanity Fair in an email interview that his public apology had nothing to do with reviving his career.
“It’s my understanding that I was in the top 10 most listened-to artists overall in the U.S. on Spotify in 2025, and last week and most days as well. My upcoming album, Bully, is currently one of the most anticipated pre-saves of any album on Spotify too,” West told the magazine. “My 2007 album, Graduation, was also the most listened to and streamed hip-hop album of 2025. This, for me, as evidenced by the latter, isn’t about reviving my commerciality. This is because these remorseful feelings were so heavy on my heart and weighing on my spirit.”
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