George Lopez has come under heavy fire on Twitter, even earning his own viral hashtag, #ArrestGeorgeLopez, for suggesting that an alleged bounty be collected on President Donald Trump.
Lopez was responding to an erroneous Instagram post claiming Iran has offered an $80 million bounty on Trump for ordering an airstrike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
Lopez responded, “We’ll do it for half.”
Lopez’s unflattering new hashtag then blew up on Twitter.
A spokesperson for Lopez told NBC News that it "really was a joke."
More than 40 people were killed and almost 200 were injured during a stampede Tuesday during Soleimani's funeral. A procession in Tehran on Monday drew more than 1 million people in the Iranian capital, crowding main thoroughfares and side streets in Tehran.
Soleimani’s death has sparked calls across Iran for revenge against America for a slaying that’s drastically raised tensions across the Middle East. The U.S. government warned ships of an unspecified threat from Iran across all the Mideast's waterways, crucial routes for global energy supplies.
»MORE: 40 dead after stampede erupts at funeral for Iranian general killed by US
Lopez is a frequent and vehement Trump critic. He publicly supported comedian Kathy Griffin's photos and video of her holding a bloodied, decapitated Trump.
Lopez is best known for his five-year stint starring on the ABC sitcom “The George Lopez Show” from 2002 to 2007 playing a version of himself, a family man at the time who also took care of the woman who raised him: his exasperating, insulting mom.
He was just the third Latino to helm a U.S. broadcast TV show, following Desi Arnaz and Freddie Prinze.
He later spent two years at TBS as a talk show host and tried to revive his comedy brand with FX’s “Saint George” in 2014 depicting his life as a divorced dad with working-class roots using the traditional sitcom set-up.
It lasted only 10 episodes.
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