‘Tiger King’ Joe Exotic announces 2024 presidential race from prison

tiger king subject Joe Exotic announced his candidacy for president in 2024 on Wednesday.

Although he is currently serving a prison sentence, he entered the race as a libertarian.

Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Allen Maldonado, shot to fame after the Netflix docuseries tiger king released in 2020.

He joins a growing number of presidential candidates, including former President Donald Trump (who currently leads among likely Republican primary voters) and President Joe Biden, who has yet to officially announce another campaign.

Exotic is serving a 21-year prison sentence following his 2019 conviction on multiple counts, including two counts of hiring hitmen to murder wildlife activist Carole Baskin. He was also accused of killing tigers and selling them across state lines.

“It’s official! I am now running for President of the United States in 2024,” Exotic wrote, sharing an image showing his official campaign file and a link to his website.

When asked by a Twitter user why he was running when he was unlikely to win, Exotic replied, “It’s not about winning or losing, it’s about making changes .”

On his website, Exotic reflected on his prison sentence, writing, “Yes, I know I’m in federal prison and you might think that’s a joke, but it’s not. It’s my constitutional right to do so even from here.

A candidate’s criminal record does not prevent him from running for president. In fact, socialist Eugene V. Debs ran in 1920 while imprisoned and got over 900,000 votes, but no Electoral College votes.

As he took aim at the US Department of Justice for condemnation in his presidential announcement, Exotic also delivered his message to American voters.

“I am here because I have a global platform for these politicians to listen to your concerns and mine and give us answers for once because all they are doing is lying to us all, taking our hard-earned money calling it taxes and giving it away to foreign countries without them giving anything back to us,” the ad reads.

You can head to his official campaign website JoeExotic2024.com for more information.