Silke Jasso
An Illinois real estate agent and supporter of President Donald Trump let his emotions get the best of him during a Twitter exchange with comedian and actor Patton Oswalt, and now he’s unemployed.
Videos by Rare
Tony Brust was fired from the Jim Maloof Realtors agency in Pekin, Illinois, after he turned a political back-and-forth into a personal attack when he brought up Oswalt’s wife, who passed away in her sleep last year at age 46.
The tweet war started when Oswalt tweeted his support for former acting Attorney General Sally Yates, who was fired by Trump after she declined to defend his executive order on immigration. Brust fired back at the well-known Trump detractor: “Oh [expletive], the little troll has an opinion again.”
RELATED: Oswalt hilariously ruminates about the ethics of punching a neo-Nazi
Oswalt and Brust — who deleted his tweets — went back and forth until Brust made it personal, tweeting: “I’m a psychic and I’m channeling his wife’s opinions.”
That’s when the fun and games stopped for Oswalt, as well as others who shared their opinion of Brust’s comment. In a Facebook post, Oswalt said he started to also get attacked on Twitter by pro-Trump accounts.
Would've happily ignored Tony Brust if he hadn't sent THIS Tweet. But he did and it caught me at a dark moment: pic.twitter.com/yflAMuSAqo
— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) January 31, 2017
Brust’s reaction was to deactivate his Twitter account.
🎶And it seems to me
You lived your life
Like a realtor in Peoria pic.twitter.com/OGZbq1cyH5— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) January 31, 2017
Agency owner Michael Maloof told the Chicago Tribune that he parted ways with Brust on the same day as the Twitter conversation. He said firing Brust had nothing to do with his political leanings, but rather his thoughtless tweet about Oswalt’s late wife.
RELATED: Oswalt spectacularly trolls Piers Morgan for his “men’s march” call to protest
“We’re kind of a conservative, God-loving, family-oriented company down here, and the respect of our fellow man is deep into our culture,” Maloof told the Tribune.
