Your ESTA approval clearly states that it does not grant you a right to enter the US and that the final decision will only be made at the border. So he was likely flagged but still may have had a chance to enter depending on the outcome of the border interrogation.
Yeah, but my point was as a reply to the claim that it was clearly something else that denied him entry.
Which it could still be. ESTA was granted because it was a "maybe". Then they found something at the border that was not in meme form, that the article doesn't mention.
Maybe he had no pre booked return ticket, was claiming to stay with a friend he didn't have the address of, and then the meme was the last (albeit tiny) straw.
My experience with CBP is that if you answer "wrong" (including saying that you only have the hotel name on your phone, which you are not allowed to check at the desk), then you need something "right", like a business card, to dig yourself out.
