According to Mads, that meme alone triggered a 12-hour ordeal, complete with intense questioning, a strip search, and ultimately deportation back to Oslo.

“I felt prejudged, suspected and humiliated,” Mads told Norwegian outlet Nordlys. “They asked about drug smuggling, terrorist plots and right-wing extremism without cause.”

He says CBP officials threatened him with prison time and a $5,000 fine unless he gave up his phone password. Once inside, agents allegedly deemed two images problematic: the now-viral Vance meme and a photo of Mads holding a homemade wooden pipe.

“The images were automatically saved from a chat app. I never imagined they’d cost me my trip,” he said.

CBP pushes back: “Not about a meme”

But U.S. authorities tell a very different story.

CBP publicly denied the meme had anything to do with it.

“Fact Check