Joe Exotic fails to receive Trump pardon: Tiger King fans react

‘Looks like Trump is on team Baskin after all,’ one person wrote

Tiger King fans are reacting to the news that Donald Trump will not be pardoning Joe Exotic.

The eccentric tiger trader was reportedly so confident he would receive a presidential pardon that his team claimed to have parked a limousine near his prison to escort him home.

Exotic is currently serving a 22-year sentence in Fort Worth, Texas, after being convicted in 2019 of trying to hire a hitman to kill his zoo keeper rival Carole Baskin, as well as numerous animal abuse charges.  

Today ( 20 January) is Trump’s final day in office before President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated. One of his last acts in power was to pardon or give a commuted sentence to 143 people, including rappers Lil Wayne and Kodak Black.

Read more: Trump’s pardons - the full list

Ahead of the announcement of the list, Joe Exotic’s name began trending on Twitter, with many believing he would be freed from prison.

However, fans of the show are now reacting to the news that Exotic’s team would have had to call off that limousine.

“I’m actually shocked Trump didn’t pardon Joe Exotic,” one person wrote.

Another added: “Joe Exotic did not get a pardon. Looks like Trump is on Team Baskin after all.”

Some people expressed their disappointment due to the fact they wanted a Tiger King follow-up series.

“Bit gutted Joe Exotic didn’t get a pardon on the condition that he makes another series of Tiger King immediately.”

Tiger King was released last March and swiftly became a global phenomenon for Netflix. 

Despite this, a contestant on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? baffled viewers after using up all three of his lifelines on a question relating to the documentary.