Joe Exotic ‘Disappointed’ to Not Get Long-Awaited Pardon from President Trump

The Tiger King is not free to run wild again … President Trump snubbed Joe Exotic‘s request to be pardoned, and he and his team aren’t taking it well.

What seemingly started as a pipe dream way back in April 2020 — when Trump said he’d “take a look” at pardoning Joe — turned out to be exactly that. Joe’s team tells TMZ … “140 million Joe Exotic fans had a hard time getting out of bed this morning.”

Yeah, that ‘Tiger King’ viewers stat might be inflated — and assumes all of them were rooting for Joe’s release — but you get the point … they’re bummed.

His team added, “We are as disappointed that the President did not sign Joe’s pardon, as we were confident yesterday that he would.” Joe’s team adds … it’s only because of his fans that the pardon was even a possibility.

As we reported … shortly after Trump’s comment, Team Tiger — led by P.I. Eric Love — produced a video asking to free Joe and hopped in a customized tour bus to head to D.C. in hopes of pitching Trump for a pardon.

Those early efforts didn’t yield success, but Love and the team were persistent … and he returned to D.C. in September to hand-deliver Joe’s pardon request. As we reported … the 257-page case to Trump included Joe’s claims that he’d been sexually assaulted in prison.

Again, there was silence from Trump about a possible pardon, but Joe continued to publicly plead for one as recently as 2 weeks ago … when he asked to be pardoned in time to attend his father’s funeral.

It didn’t happen, and Joe’s patience and persistence was all for naught … because he didn’t make the cut for Trump’s list of 73 pardons and 70 commutations. In other news — Steve Bannon, Lil Wayne, Kodak Black and the co-founder of Death Row Records all did.

As you know … Exotic’s been doing hard time for the murder-for-hire plot, and though he’s maintained his innocence, he’ll remain behind bars.