Australian Politician Calls for Deportation of Tenacious D After Trump Shooting Comment

An Australian politician has called for the comedy rock band Tenacious D, comprising Jack Black and Kyle Gass, to be deported from the country after a comment a band member made about the assassination attempt on Donald Trump.

On Sunday, in footage widely shared on social media, Tenacious D were on stage in Sydney, when Black and a “robot” presented Gass with a birthday cake. In the clips, Black is heard saying, “Make a wish” to Gass, who before blowing out the candles says, “Don’t miss Trump next time” to laughter and applause from the Sydney crowd.

Senator Ralph Babet, leader of the United Australia Party, took to social media on Monday night to demand that Tenacious D be deported for the bad-taste joke. In a media release, Babet claimed Glass’ comments were not a joke, and he called on Australia’s immigration minister Andrew Giles to “revoke their visas.”

Babet added, “Anything less than a deportation is an endorsement of the shooting and the attempted assassination of Donald J. Trump.”

Babet has previously decried censorship. In February, the senator was in the middle of a political firestorm in Australia for re-sharing graphic clips from a stabbing incident, which the Australian government had ordered X, formerly Twitter, to take down due to the violent and distressing nature of the footage.

After the Australian courts had reaffirmed an injunction against posting clips of the stabbing, a defiant Babet tweeted out the graphic footage to his X account twice. “Without free speech our nation will fall,” he later tweeted.

The fallout from the comment has seen the Tenacious D postpone at short notice their sold out gig in Newcastle that was set for July 16. Frontier Touring, the company that is promoting the Tenacious D concert in Newcastle, posted a message to its Facebook page that said that the gig had been postponed. “Ticket holders are asked to hold onto their tickets until further information is available”, the post added. No reason for the postponement was given.

Tenacious D still have three dates left of their Australian tour, including shows in Brisbane, Melbourne and Adelaide. It is unclear whether those shows will go ahead as planned.

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