Tiger King runs for president from jail: 'Make America Exotic Again'

Americans, brace yourselves because your next president so could be a "king"! That's right, Joe "Exotic" Maldonado, aka "The Tiger King," has announced his candidacy from prison to run for president.

Image: @joe_exotic / Instagram

The Netflix star is best known for the popular series 'The Tiger King,' which helped many couch surfers get through the pandemic.

Maldonado will be running for president in the Libertarian Party, who are not overly thrilled with his candidacy, to say the least.

Image: Netflix

Joe Exotic Maldonado has assured the public that he is very serious and that his presidential campaign is anything but a joke.

Image: @joe_exotic / Instagram

However, according to TMZ, Angela McArdle, chair of the Libertarian Party, said Maldonado is "just tigers and glitter."

Image: @joe_exotic / Instagram

McArdle told TMZ in an interview, "We stand for personal and economic freedom; we are not a landing pad for former reality stars and D-list celebrities."

Image: @joe_exotic / Instagram

Joe Exotic, aged 60, was convicted and sentenced to 22 years in prison in 2020. He was found guilty of 17 federal charges of animal abuse and two counts of attempted murder for hire.

The "Tiger King" filed his Federal Election Commission documents in February 2023 to run as a Libertarian presidential candidate in the 2024 elections.

Image: @joe_exotic / Instagram

Naturally, Joe has a fantastic slogan to go along with his campaign, "Make America Exotic."

Image: @joe_exotic / Instagram

In a statement on his newly launched campaign site, Joe wrote: "Put aside that I am gay, that I am in prison for now..."

Image: @joe_exotic / Instagram

"...that I used drugs in the past, that I had more than one boyfriend at once, and that Carole [Baskin] hates my guts. This all has not a thing to do with me being able to be your voice." Basically, Exotic wants Americans to forget everything he is famous for!

Image: @joe_exotic / Instagram

Exotic continued: "The best thing you have going for supporting me is that I am used to fighting my whole life just to get by. I am broke, they have taken everything I ever worked for away, and it's time we take this country back."

Image: @joe_exotic / Instagram

In an interview with The Florida Standard, the former reality television star stated one of his biggest priorities when he becomes president in 2024 will be to pardon himself. In fact, he says it will be the first thing he will do.

Image: @joe_exotic / Instagram

In addition, Joe said he would pardon "every person that's in federal prison on conspiracy charges that never got caught with drugs."

Image: @joe_exotic / Instagram

During the interview with The Florida Standard, Exotic also said that he believes that Trump's failure to pardon him caused him to lose against Biden.

Image: @joe_exotic / Instagram

Joe said, "If he would've pardoned me, he wouldn't have had to call Georgia and ask for 11,000 votes because he would've got 'em."

Image: @joe_exotic / Instagram

In his interview, Maldonado also shared who his least favorite presidential candidate is and who he would vote for.

Image: @joe_exotic / Instagram

Joe said: "as bad of a job as [President] Biden's doing right now and as bad of a job as Trump did, I would vote for either one of them two before I vote for Ron DeSantis."

Image: @joe_exotic / Instagram

"The Tiger King" still has 20 years remaining on his prison sentence but doesn't seem to be having too many difficulties running his presidential campaign from behind bars.

Image: @joe_exotic / Instagram

Joe is selling campaign t-shirts with "Joe Exotic 2024" along with wristbands and bumper stickers on his website.

Image: @joe_exotic / Instagram

Exotic promises that by supporting him, you can "help him break the chains of government corruption and greed that hold our citizens captive and give the rights back to the people, where they belong."

Image: @joe_exotic / Instagram

However, you might be wondering, is it even legal for someone to run for President from prison?

Image: @joe_exotic / Instagram

With all of Donald Trump's legal problems and possible arrest there has been much talk in the press about this issue and the answer might surprise you!

Fortunately for Joe Exotic, being behind bars won't be an issue for him. According to the United States Constitution, candidates running for the presidency must only fulfill three requirements.

Image: @joe_exotic / Instagram

The U.S. Constitution states that the President must: 1) Be a natural-born citizen of the United States. 2) Be at least 35 years old. 3) Have been a resident of the United States for 14 years.

Image: @joe_exotic / Instagram

None of these requirements prevents a candidate from running for President while in prison. So Joe Exotic, if he were to gain enough support, could legally become the President of the United States from behind bars.

Image: @joe_exotic / Instagram

Who knows what the future holds? As crazy as it sounds, if Trump was able to win, perhaps Joe Exotic has a shot, even if it is a long one! Regardless, his campaign will undoubtedly be entertaining, to say the least!

Image: @joe_exotic / Instagram