Influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate arrived in Florida after President Donald Trump lifted a travel plan on the accused sex traffickers. Now Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he doesn’t want them in his state, even as some Republican groups welcome the far-right figures with open arms.
Keep up with the latest in LGBTQ+ news and politics. Sign up for The Advocate's email newsletter.
Who are Andrew and Tristan Tate?
Andrew Tate at one point was considered one of the best kickboxers in the world. Nicknamed “King Cobra,” the British athlete between 2007 and 2020 won 76 matches, including 23 knockouts, while only losing 9 times, according toSportskeeda. He later appeared on the U.K. version of Big Brother.
But it was on social media that Tate later made a name for himself as an outspoken misogynist, declaring in TikTok videos that rape survivors “bear responsibility” for their assaults, that women cannot drive, and that they should be considered the property of men, earning media attention from British outlets like The Guardian.
He ended up banned from that platform, as well as Facebook and Meta, by the end of 2022. He was booted years prior from Twitter in 2017, where his @Cobratate account had tens of thousands of followers at the time. But he was reinstated after Elon Musk bought the platform in 2022 and today has some 10.7 million followers.
What are the Tate brothers accused of?
Authorities in Romania, where the brothers lived since 2017, criminally charged the Tates in 2017 with rape, human trafficking, and forming a criminal gang to exploit women, according toThe Associated Press. The Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism alleged the brothers conspired in human trafficking operations in Romania, Britain, and the United States.
Specifically, Romanian prosecutors said seven female victims had been lured to Romania on false premises only to be physically and sexually assaulted by the Tates’ gang. Through a spokesperson, the Tates at the time said they would “demonstrate their innocence and vindicate their reputation.”
Trump's embrace?
Andrew Tate recently posted a video prominently featuring speeches by Trump and linking to his own The Real World web portal. He hinted at a personal boon for his own support of Trump. “When the game is fair. When the winners stop getting robbed to feed the losers. You’re going to want to be a winner. Change teams,” he posted. It wasn’t the first time the Tates embraced Trump as a figure to celebrate, but this time appeared to portend consequence.
Earlier in the month, reports surfaced that Richard Grenell, a Special Envoy in Trump’s administration and one of the most prominent out figures in the MAGA world, had raised the Tate’s criminal case, something first reported by The Financial Times. Sources said the U.S. diplomat asked for the Tates to have passports restored and to be allowed to travel internationally despite the criminal investigation.
Then news broke this week the brothers were leaving Romania and heading to Florida, news not received well by leaders in the state.
“Florida is not a place where you’re welcome with that type of conduct in the air, and I don’t know how it came to this. We were not involved, we were not notified. I found out through the media that this was something that was happening,” DeSantis said, as reported by Florida Politics.
Andrew Tate upon landing in Fort Lauderdale told press it was a connection to Barron Trump, the President’s youngest son, who helped establish a connection with the administration.
Tate revealed he had spoken to the 18-year-old, suggesting a conversation previously happened around the time of his 2023 arrest in Romania. Around that same time, Donald Trump, Jr. called the arrests “absolute insanity.”
“I’m very close with the Trump family. I know them well. I spoke to Barron after the incident,” Tate said according to The Irish Times.
No warm welcome from Ron DeSantis
The apparent aid to an alleged sex trafficker has created sharp rifts on the right. Besides DeSantis, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said he has directed his staff to conduct a preliminary inquiry of the Tates. This week, Uthmeier announced search warrants and interview subpoenas would be issued as part of an active investigation of the brother.
But the Tampa Bay Young Republicans have invited the Tate brothers to speak to their organization. “As free speech absolutists, the Tate's haven't been formally convicted of any crimes and are welcome to speak to our group. We're old enough to remember when a ‘Convicted Felon.’ won the Presidency.
Online provocateurs like Candace Owens have also rushed to the Tates' defense and offered a platform online to criticize the Florida officials, who incidentally are no strangers to the far right (DeSantis infamously released videos filled with manosphere and nationalist imagery during his failed presidential campaign, which Uthmeier managed at points.)
But Grenell has added further fuel to speculation he was directly involved in negotiating to allow the Tates to come to the U.S. by reposting defenses of the brothers, including a post by Andrew Tate himself criticizing DeSantis for directing law enforcement attention at him.
On Thursday, he tweeted a cryptic message on X, formerly Twitter, "Thank you Florida, you were very welcoming," adding that he would see the state in "a few years."
