tate tristan
SEEMS EMBLemATIC, IMMUNE TO FACT/ REALITY
Right-wing media deny climate change in face of deadly and record-breaking extreme ...
https://www.mediamatters.org/climate-deniers/right-wing-media-deny-climate-change-face-deadly-and-record-breaking-extreme
Media Matters for America
Fox Business host Stuart Varney indulged climate change denier Marc Morano and said climate change is “a good debate.” When discussing extreme ...
as the climate crisis becomes more evident and destructive,even exceeding climate scientists’ earlier predictions, Fox News and other influential right-wing outlets and figures are downplaying the severity of climate-fueled events and pushing dangerous climate denial.
This summer has been marked by a series of record-breaking extreme weather events, illustrative of the rapidly intensifying effects of global warming. Unprecedented heat waves, wildfires, and floods have wreaked havoc across North America. Meanwhile, global sea surface temperatures have reached alarming levels, and the world just experienced its hottest day on record — four days in a row. These events align with scientists' warnings, but the acceleration of warming and the intensity of this summer’s extreme heat suggest that the climate crisis is unfolding faster than expected.
Last month, when smoke from hundreds of wildfires raging across Canada polluted the air over major population centers in the U.S., Fox News dismissed the link between the fires and climate change; meanwhile conspiracy theories seeking alternative explanations for Canada’s record-breaking wildfire season flourished online. In response to news that Earth had reached its hottest temperatures ever recorded, bad actors attempted to distract from the unsettling milestone by focusing on CNN’s use of the phrase “hottest day ever.” As deadly heat continues to scorch parts of the U.S., Asia, and Europe with no end in sight, and with a 1,000-year flood event having left parts of Vermont and New York state underwater, right-wing media cling to talking points that deny climate science.
By flooding the zone with climate denial right when the climate crisis is most evident, right-wing media run cover for Republican decision-makers who are actively obstructing climate action, ward off accountability for the fossil fuel industry, and pollute information systems for those attempting to understand the link between extreme weather and our dependence on fossil fuels. This tactic, like the extreme heat, has no end in sight.
Right-wing media responded to deadly climate change-fueled heat and flooding with denial and delay
- Fox Business host Stuart Varney indulged climate change denier Marc Morano and said climate change is “a good debate.” When discussing extreme heat in Phoenix, Arizona, Morano said, “This is not outside the normal bounds of hot summer weather,” and claimed that CNN, The New York Times, and others are “weaponizing hot summer heat waves to turn it into some kind of climate action.” Varney asked Morano whether “that is not the result of CO2 emissions'' and said, “It's a good debate. This is a very good debate.” Fox Business, *Varney & Co*., [7/19/23]
- Far-right radio host Steven Crowder hosted climate contrarian Bjorn Lomborg, who downplayed the climate crisis by arguing that more people die from cold than heat: “We are not talking about a world where most people die from heat. No, most people die from cold. Cold is fantastically more dangerous for a lot of different reasons.”:{ Rumble, :(style="background-color:#ffffff;"):}:*Louder with Crowder*:{, :(style="background-color:#ffffff;"):}:[7/19/23:{]}:
- The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh suggests that the extreme heat is normal for summer: “:{Well it’s summertime and that means it's hot outside … This is when the media, as it does every year, claims that the hot weather is a sign of our impending planetary doom.” The Daily Wire, :(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}:*The Matt Walsh Show*, [7/18/23]
- Far-right pundit James Lindsay: “Climate struggle sessions ramping up. They're going to try and fail to make that transition again. The propaganda isn't going to work this time either, though.” Twitter, [7/18/23]
- Fox News host Laura Ingraham, in response to an Axios article about extreme weather: “I'm not taking@Axios seriously until they start crusading against coal burning in China — anyone who claims to worry about carbon emissions should start there or button it. Even the ‘best states for climate change’ get hit with extreme weather” Twitter, [7/18/23]
- COVID-19 conspiracy theorist Dr. Naomi Wolf: “Oh! Conclusions: this will happen more and more often because climate change so: stay indoors, do remote work, ‘mask’. Back where we were again.” Twitter, [7/18/23]
- Right-wing Irish political activist and conspiracy theorist Ben Gilroy: “Today media continue to propagandise weather showing high temperatures in Death Valley USA — yet the park rangers wear jackets and gloves? The elites UN climate scam is really about securing a world government plutocracy, depopulation, and severely cutting your quality of life.” Twitter, [7/18/23]
- Fox host Jesse Watters downplayed the extreme heat as simply “summer”: “It's been a hot July. Some call it ‘global warming,’ some call it ‘summer.’ But what's the best way to beat the heat? Ice cream.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [7/17/23]
- Lindsay mocked conditions in the southern U.S. that were so humid they had the potential to interfere with humans’ ability to sweat, pushing the limits of survivability. Twitter, [7/17/23]
- Longtime fossil fuel shill Steve Milloy: “@AP: 'Around the world, millions feel the heat of an unrelenting summer.' Two points: 1. It is summer. It gets hot. 2. There 8 billion in the world. If only 'millions' are experiencing extreme heat, that doesn't sound much like 'climate change.'” Twitter, [7/17/23]
- Misogynist influencer and alleged sex trafficker Tristan Tate: “They’re naming heatwaves like they used to name new ‘Covid variants’. Can somebody in the government give me the job of whoever makes the names up? I’ll do it for free. Watch out! The ‘lovely warm summer’ heatwave has just hit Europe.” Twitter, [7/15/23]
- COVID-19 conspiracy theorist and anti-vaccine influencer Dr. Eli David: “When the weather is a bit warmer than usual: Experts™: IT'S PROOF OF GLOBAL WARMING!!!!! When the weather is colder than usual: Experts™: WEATHER AND CLIMATE ARE TWO DIFFERENT THINGS YOU MORONS!!!!!” Twitter, [7/17/23]
- Newsmax host Chris Salcedo mocked concern over the record heat:“Newsflash folks, it gets hot in the summer.” He continued, “After a few particularly hot days on the Fourth of July weekend, the left — they went into full fearmongering mode.” Salcedo then interviewed Milloy, who warned that climate activists would call for climate lockdowns. Newsmax, *The Chris Salcedo Show*, [7/17/23]
- On The Five, Jesse Watters attacked “the left” for connecting climate change to heat waves across the globe and mocked climate activists:“The left rushing to blame global warming for that dangerous heat wave gripping the nation and the world right now. But I think the heat's getting to their heads. Climate change-obsessed liberals are actually acting crazier than usual, with eco-extremists in Germany literally gluing their hands to airport runways as a way to sound thealarm on how the planet's cooked.” Fox News, *The Five*, [7/17/23]
- Fox host Greg Gutfeld also attempted to downplay the record-breaking heat with bizarre logic: “The problem with using weather — like saying, ‘This place broke records’ — how many states, how many countries didn't break records? Nobody ever provides you the context. They’re going, ‘Three countries had record breaking heat waves.’ It’s like, well, ‘How many countries are there?’” Fox News, *The Five*, [7/17/23]
- On America’s Newsroom, Lomborg suggested that more air conditioning is the way to address extreme heat: “The way to fix this, of course, is to make sure that people get lots of air conditioningand that they can actually afford the energy that they will run their air conditioning on. That’s one. The second one is to remember that, yes, there are many people dying from heat, but many, many more people dying from cold.:{” Fox News, :(style="background-color:#ffffff;"):}:*America’s Newsroom*:{, :(style="background-color:#ffffff;"):}:[7/17/23:{]}:
- Climate change denier and former University of Alabama professor Matthew Wielicki: “We used to call this summer. Now we call this a climate crisis.” Twitter, [7/15/23]
- Milloy: “India's monsoon season is not affected by emissions. Indians have died in monsoon flooding since there have been Indians and monsoons. It is really dishonest and disgusting to surf tragic deaths for climate.” Twitter, [7/14/23]
- Right-wing British pundit Brendan O’Neill, who has been praised by anti-renewable energy activist Michael Shellenberger, wrote that “global warming could be good for humankind.”:{ Citing Lomborg, O’Neill wrote that “the truth is that global warming could be good for humankind” because more people die from the cold than heat. “It’s pissing down in Britain,” he continued, “Where’s our global warming? Even the name of the heatwave is designed to conjure up visions of hellfire and torment.” Spiked, :(style="background-color:#ffffff;"):}:[7/14/23:{]}:
- On Fox News at Night, Carl Demaio, a political operative and conservative radio host, called a California campaign to warn residents about climate-driven extreme heat “wasteful spending” and “fear porn.” Fox News, *Fox News at Night*, [7/12/23]
- Newsmax host Eric Bolling, in response to calls for climate action after flooding in the Northeast, denied that human activity is responsible for warming: “It's raining, so we all must change our behavior. Unprecedented weather events — look flooding’s terrible, loss of property is a disaster, and our hearts go out to those affected. But just imagine, for one moment, the ridiculousness and the pompousness to think that: one, our behavior has any real impact on weather and the Earth, and two, even if that were true — which it’s not — that we could do anything about it without making things worse.” Newsmax, *Eric Bolling The Balance*, [7/11/23]
- Fox host Laura Ingraham also mocked the extreme heat and calls to action, suggesting that climate change is a made-up crisis: “It's hot, hot, hot all right. After all, we're in the middle of a season called ‘summer.’” Ingraham later played a clip from a previous show, arguing that “COVID lockdowns set the predicate for more to come.” She said, “Their so-called public health expertswere wrong on everything from lockdowns to masks to social distancing. And yet now we see the usual suspects lining up to exploit another hyped crisis: of course, I’m talking about climate change.” Fox News, *The Ingraham Angle*, [7/11/23]
- Right-wing journalist and author Alex Berenson: As climate change hysteria reaches a new level of screeching (1-in-1000 this, world's hottest that), remember that weather-related deaths have PLUNGED since 1970. The wealthier the world becomes, the easier managing climate change will be. And wealth requires energy. Period. Twitter, [7/10/23]
- On Jesse Watters Primetime, guest host Pete Hegseth mocked reports of record-breaking heat and blamed media for “hyping climate insanity”: If there is one thing the mindless left loves to magically discover every year, it’s that summer is hot. Hegseth continued, “It was hotter in New York in April.And it’s not even the hottest June we’ve ever had. The data shows that the 80s and 90s … were a lot hotter.” Fox News, :{Jesse Watters Primetime:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:, [7/7/23]
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nyt
By Megan Twohey and Isabella Kwai
The reporters interviewed dozens of people in Romania, the United States and Britain and reviewed court documents, emails and text messages. They welcome tips at nytimes.com/tips.
Published Dec. 10, 2025
Updated Dec. 11, 2025
Days before Donald J. Trump’s return to the White House, Andrew Tate got some good news.
Mr. Tate and his brother, Tristan, swaggering influencers in the so-called manosphere, had been under criminal investigation in Romania since 2022, accused of coercing women into pornography. Andrew was also accused of rape and of having sex with and beating a 15-year-old. The brothers, American and British citizens, had been barred from leaving Romania while prosecutors built their case.
Now, in a Jan. 14 text message, Mr. Tate indicated that help was on the way.
“I had word from The Trump admin that theyre on top of things,” Mr. Tate wrote to someone close to him, in a message reviewed by The New York Times. “Ive been told ill be free soon but Trump needs to see me in Miami,” he added.
The next month, an extraordinary order came down from the highest levels of the Romanian government, a Times investigation found. The prosecutors were told to find a compromise with the Tates. Despite their misgivings, they lifted the travel restrictions, a move that Romania’s prime minister thought would appease the Trump administration.
“We’re massively back,” a grinning Mr. Tate announced in a video recorded for his followers on Feb. 27, as a private plane whisked the brothers to Florida.
Their arrival in the United States opened a rare rift among conservatives and raised suspicions over whether the White House had intervened. The Times found that support from Trump administration officials played a crucial role.
Interviews with dozens of people in Romania, the United States and Britain, as well as a review of hundreds of pages of court documents and private messages, offer the fullest account yet of how the Tates rose from a fringe corner of the internet to become a cause célèbre on the right. The brothers’ release from Romania was the culmination of a yearslong effort by Andrew to forge alliances with Mr. Trump’s advisers and family members.
The Tates have helped propel a brazenly chauvinistic movement around the world, even as they racked up allegations of human trafficking and physical violence in multiple countries. They deny criminal wrongdoing. But Andrew, 39, and Tristan, 37, have boasted about recruiting women to make lucrative sexual content, and have sold courses teaching young men how to follow in their footsteps.
Interview with Andrew Tate conducted by Anthony Dream Johnson and posted to YouTube in 2019.
As his notoriety grew, Andrew Tate shrewdly courted Tucker Carlson and other media stars of the right, who in turn tapped into the brothers’ loyal following to expand their own reach.
Andrew also nurtured relationships with Donald Trump Jr. and his younger brother Barron, who recognized the role that young male voters could play in their father’s return to power.
Barron, now 19, admired Andrew, and spoke with him over Zoom last year, according to Justin Waller, a mutual friend who was on the call. During the call, they discussed their shared belief that the Romanian criminal case was an effort to silence the Tates, he said.
After Mr. Trump’s re-election, some of the Tates’ supporters ascended into the new administration. One of them, the diplomatic envoy Richard Grenell, twice discussed their case with Romanian officials, The Times found.
Within days of the second conversation, the Romanian prosecutors received their marching orders and handed the Tates the freedom to travel — after long arguing that the brothers were a public danger and a flight risk. The prosecutors were outraged, according to people familiar with the matter who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it.
The brothers’ liberation rattled many American diplomats, who feared a shadowy new era of foreign relations. And it prompted hostility from many traditional conservatives, from Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, to the commentator Megyn Kelly, who said, “This actually is toxic masculinity.” Some likened the Tates to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Their return also led to a new assault allegation, from a girlfriend who said Andrew beat and strangled her shortly after his arrival in the United States. Prosecutors declined to bring charges, but she has filed a lawsuit against him and has been granted a restraining order. He is suing her for defamation.
In a statement to The Times, the Romanian prosecutors’ office said that the country’s constitution requires them to operate independently and that their actions in the Tates’ case have been legal. Marcel Ciolacu, who was the prime minister when the Tates were released, did not respond to requests for comment.
An official with the White House said it has no knowledge of and is not involved in anything related to the Tates’ legal matters. The official did not respond to questions about Barron. Donald Trump Jr. did not respond to a request for comment.
The Tates’ lawyer said The Times’s findings about Andrew and Barron were “fake news.”
After more than two years of confinement, the brothers have used their newfound freedom to resume their jet-setting lifestyle and juice their brand. They have visited Kanye West, partied poolside with beautiful women and promoted their business to chanting fans.
“I’m in Dubai, I’m still rich, all I do is win,” Andrew said in a video posted in April that shows him driving off in a Bugatti.
But their legal problems haven’t gone away. The Romanian case is moving forward, and once it’s finished, the brothers will face charges of human trafficking and rape in Britain.
And in the United States, The Times found, anti-trafficking agents at the Department of Homeland Security have been investigating the Tates for years.
ImageAndrew Tate, in a half-unbuttoned animal-print shirt, sits in a crowded audience beside Tristan Tate, in a fuchsia blazer.
Andrew and Tristan Tate at a fight in Las Vegas in March, part of their U.S. visit after their release from Romania.Credit...Mikael Ona/ZUMA Press Wire
Riding Outrage to Money and Fame
Andrew Tate found modest fame as a professional kickboxer in the 2010s, but as he tells it, he didn’t start making real money until he and his brother went into pornography.
By 2015, the Tates had installed women in apartments and a hotel room in Britain, to perform live on webcams for paying customers. Andrew later described how the brothers romanced attractive women, coaxed them into the business and took most of the profits.
“It’s not just about picking up girls,” Mr. Tate said in an interview posted to YouTube. “It’s about converting them into really loving you enough to moving in with you and working for you and giving you all the money.”
Both brothers had run-ins with the British police. Tristan was arrested in 2014 after a woman reported he had assaulted her.
The next year, Andrew was arrested three times, the police said. One woman who had worked for him said in court documents that he strangled her during sex; another said he had raped, beaten and pulled a gun on her; a third woman said he had raped and strangled her while they were dating.
Authorities did not charge either brother. But Andrew said the scrutiny prompted him to leave Britain.
One day, he recalled on a podcast years later, he woke up and said, “I will not live under a government that will do this to me when I’ve done nothing wrong.” He and Tristan moved to Romania, a country they had gotten to know through the professional fighting circuit. There, Andrew said on another show, “you can get away with shit you can’t get away with in the West.”
With Romania as their new home base, the brothers ran their webcam business from there and in Britain.
When Andrew was cast for the British reality show “Big Brother” in 2016, few knew about his business or the assault allegations.
He was soon fired, however, after a tabloid obtained a video of him whipping a girlfriend with a belt. They both said it was consensual.
The scandal boosted his fame, especially on social media, where he became a fierce supporter of Mr. Trump. Donald Trump Jr. liked one of his supportive Twitter posts and they soon agreed to meet, Mr. Tate recalled on a podcast. He went to Trump Tower in 2017.
“We still inbox each other every couple of days,” Mr. Tate said on the podcast, in 2018.
By 2022, he and Tristan had gained millions of followers by preaching mental and physical discipline, entrepreneurship and the subjugation of women. They had expanded the porn business to TikTok, OnlyFans and other platforms, and were selling their courses to young men. One offering was called PHD, for “pimping hoes degree.” Over the previous eight years, they had earned at least 21 million pounds (nearly $28 million), according to records from a British court that found they had evaded taxes.
Interview with Andrew Tate conducted by James English and posted to YouTube in 2021. Mr. Tate discusses his beliefs about the inferiority of women.
When Andrew was kicked off several social media platforms and decried by high school teachers, it only increased his notoriety. He became one of the most searched people on Google.
In December 2022, the brothers were arrested in Romania and, with court approval, jailed for three months. Prosecutors later charged them with forming an organized criminal group and trafficking seven women, and charged Andrew with rape.
The 360-page sealed indictment, obtained by The Times, said the Tates had tricked the women into believing they were in long-term relationships, then coerced them into pornographic work. The brothers had put them under surveillance, restricted their movements and docked their pay if they cried on camera or broke other rules, prosecutors said.
Text messages cited in the indictment show Andrew Tate and one woman discussing what would happen if she went to Romania.
Woman
do you want me to be your slave or your wife?
Andrew Tate
you'll do whatever I tell you
which is the same thing
if I choose a woman to be my wife, she'll love me enough to let me tell her what I feel like
I WILL DECIDE if she's a slave
Once she arrived, he raped her twice, on one occasion forcing her into group sex, the indictment said.
Andrew choked another woman so hard that blood vessels in her eye burst, prosecutors said.
In a text-message chat titled “PIMPS,” Tristan and two associates discussed how to punish a woman who said she would no longer work for them.
Tristan Tate
The move now is as follows.
Associate 1
ok
Tristan Tate
both of you go, get her out of the house
Associate 2
Ok
Tristan Tate
hit her if you have to, I don't care
don't let her take her things
Associate 2
thanks
Ok
The woman was pushed down and dragged out of the house, she and witnesses told prosecutors.
Romania, long known as a hub for sex trafficking, has expanded prosecutions to include so-called Lover Boy cases based on romance, psychological coercion and threats. The indictment against the Tates acknowledged that two of the women cited as victims said they didn’t see themselves that way. Prosecutors said evidence showed that they were.
Press releases announcing the arrest, the indictment and the ensuing restrictions on the Tates’ movements made headlines around the world. But Mr. Tate, facing the prospect of prison, didn’t retreat from the controversy. He used it.
From Tucker to Barron
After his arrest, Mr. Tate hired Joseph D. McBride, a lawyer who had defended Trump supporters accused of insurrection at the Capitol. In short order, Mr. McBride pitched his brash new client to the conservative host Tucker Carlson.
In some ways, it was an odd pairing. Mr. Carlson was a proud husband who promoted Christian family values. But he had been ousted from Fox News after lawsuits exposed offensive language in his private messages to colleagues. He was building his own show on Twitter. And Mr. Tate, who had been reinstated on the platform by Elon Musk, had millions of followers there.
In an interview with The Times, Mr. McBride recalled telling Mr. Carlson that if he flew to Romania for a sit-down with Andrew, “I know we’ll break the internet.”
Image
A black car pulls up to a modern black-and-red building displaying a samurai statue and signs that read “security guard” and “Tate.”
The Tates’ compound in Romania.Credit...Daniel Mihailescu/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images
He was right. The 2023 interview, recorded at Mr. Tate’s luxury home on the outskirts of Bucharest, has drawn more than 112 million views.
They spent much of the two-and-a-half-hour conversation discussing their shared beliefs, including what they saw as a left-wing war on masculinity. Mr. Carlson didn’t press Mr. Tate on his porn operation or his previous comments about exploiting women.
Mr. Carlson misrepresented the criminal allegations in Romania, saying that they involved no sex crimes or violence, or any actions that could be considered trafficking.
“That’s not actually human trafficking,” Mr. Carlson said of the charges. “I don’t care what you call it, you weren’t buying, even accused of buying and selling anyone.”
Asked recently about the interview, Mr. Carlson told The Times, “If I misstated their indictment or got the facts wrong, I sincerely apologize.”
He added, “It doesn’t change my view that the Tates, whatever their personal behavior, had a message worth hearing.”
Interview with Andrew Tate conducted by Tucker Carlson and posted to Twitter in 2023.
The interview helped burnish Mr. Tate’s reputation. Charlie Kirk, the conservative youth organizer and Trump adviser, was among those who tuned in.
“Now I see why he’s popular,” Mr. Kirk said on his podcast. While he expressed disgust over Mr. Tate’s pornography business, he agreed that masculinity was under siege. “He is hitting on something that you’re not allowed to say, where there’s a lot of truth to it.”
Candace Owens, another popular podcaster, flew to Romania and conducted her own sympathetic interview of Mr. Tate. She told her audience it was a mistake to judge him for his past comments or the ostentatious content he posted.
“This is how guys have fun,” she said, “the same way that girls sit around and talk about ‘Real Housewives.’”
In other interviews, Mr. Tate drew parallels that he saw between himself and Mr. Trump: both booted from social media, both criminally prosecuted, both victims of political attacks.
In September 2023, Mr. Trump shared on Truth Social, his social media platform, a video of Tristan defending him. “Thank you!” Mr. Trump wrote.
Mr. McBride, the brothers’ lawyer, pressed their case in meetings with members of Congress, according to an interview he gave to the Republican operative Roger Stone. Mr. McBride said both male and female lawmakers were “outraged” at the brothers’ treatment.
Don Jr. showed support, too. “You’ve got people attacking you as far as I’m concerned,” he told Mr. Tate in a June 2024 conversation live-streamed on X, the renamed Twitter platform. “They just want to silence you.”
Image
Barron Trump, wearing a dark overcoat and slicked-back hair, stands with one fist raised as people around him smile and clap.
Barron Trump admired Andrew Tate and spoke with him by Zoom last year, according to a mutual friend.Credit...Eric Lee/The New York Times
His younger brother Barron was also a fan.
That spring, as his father was going after young male voters on the campaign trail, the teenager hosted a dinner at Mar-a-Lago for influencers. Among them was Mr. Waller, who has helped run the Tates’ courses and told The Times he is widely seen as the “third brother.”
The conversation that night meandered, Mr. Waller said, from “calling each other degenerate names” to discussing potential running mates for Mr. Trump, who also made an appearance and agreed to go on the podcast of another guest, Patrick Bet-David.
Mr. Waller has tried to play a “big brother” role for Barron, he said, visiting Mar-a-Lago and talking to him about dating. The president’s youngest son is “not a bad ally to have — let’s be frank,” he said.
He and Barron spoke to Andrew over Zoom last year, Mr. Waller said, while the teenager was having a suit fitted by Mr. Waller’s tailor. Although they discussed the Romanian case, Barron did not say anything about helping the Tates, Mr. Waller said. They also talked about supporting Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign on their online platforms.
That summer, when a young man tried to assassinate Mr. Trump, Mr. Tate told reporters that he had talked to Barron after the shooting.
“I’m very close to the Trump family,” he added. “I look forward to, once I am free, being with Donald Trump in person and reminding him that he’s a bulletproof badass.”
Allies Ascend
When Andrew texted in January that the Trump administration was “on top of things,” he didn’t name names.
But several of his supporters had found roles in the incoming government.
Paul Ingrassia, who was initially named White House liaison to the Justice Department, had once been part of the Tates’ legal team. Alina Habba, a counselor to the president who would later serve a brief stint as New Jersey’s top prosecutor, told Andrew on a podcast in January that “I got your back over here.”
Image
Richard Grenell Alina Habba, seated next to each other amid a crowd, wearing suits and neutral expressions.
Richard Grenell, center, and Alina Habba (wearing glasses) at a Senate confirmation hearing in January.Credit...Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times
And Mr. Grenell, a special presidential envoy, privately discussed the Tates’ case with Romanian officials, The Times found.
At Mar-a-Lago last December, he met Victor Ponta, an adviser to Romania’s prime minister.
Mr. Ponta had traveled to Mr. Trump’s Florida club to make inroads with the president-elect’s inner circle, he told The Times in an interview in Bucharest. His country was in a defensive crouch for its handling of a presidential election. Its highest court had tossed out the first round of votes, citing evidence that Russia had meddled on behalf of the winner, a far-right candidate. Donald Trump Jr. and Elon Musk, among other American conservatives, accused Romania of undermining democracy.
Mr. Ponta sensed that informal diplomacy would be a big part of the incoming Trump administration. And Mr. Grenell, who would soon negotiate the release of several American detainees in Venezuela, was already positioning himself as a forceful operator.
When asked by The Times whether he and Mr. Grenell discussed the Tates’ case, Mr. Ponta affirmed that they had. “Maybe he saw himself as releasing all the American hostages around the world,” he said, without elaborating further.
Last month, Mr. Ponta backpedaled. In a text exchange with The Times, he said he didn’t recall whether he and Mr. Grenell had talked about the Tates. He then said he was sure they had not.
Mr. Grenell also discussed the Tates’ case in mid-February, with Romania’s then foreign minister, Emil Hurezeanu, when they crossed paths at a security conference in Munich, as first reported by The Financial Times.
Mr. Grenell disputed the characterization of the encounter, saying in a statement to The Times that it had become exaggerated in media accounts. “I simply ran into him in the hallway,” he said. The foreign minister asked him if he stood by an old tweet showing support for the Tates, he said, and he replied yes. “I have never met the Tate Brothers, I’ve never been to Romania,” Mr. Grenell said. His statement did not address the Mar-a-Lago conversation.
Soon after the Munich conference, the prime minister posted on social media that the United States had not made any requests or demands on Romania.
‘The Tate Escape’
By then, the Tates’ legal problems were snowballing.
In Britain, the women who had accused Andrew of rape and assault a decade earlier were suing him in civil court. And prosecutors had authorized trafficking and rape charges against the brothers based on allegations involving three other women.
In America, Homeland Security anti-trafficking agents had been conducting interviews about the Tates, according to people familiar with the confidential investigation. The agents were working with federal prosecutors who would go on to win the conviction of Sean Combs, the music mogul known as “Diddy.” Both offices declined to comment.
In Romania, a judge had invalidated the 2023 indictment, citing procedural mistakes. But the prosecutors were trying to correct them and move forward with a case.
They had presented evidence that, since 2014, the brothers had between them coerced more than 30 other women, including a 17-year-old, into their pornography operation, court records show.
Mr. Tate was also accused of having sex with a 15-year-old and trying to bribe her to stay quiet. She told investigators he had beaten her with a belt and choked her until she passed out, according to the documents.
The Tates have denied all criminal wrongdoing and Andrew has contested the civil claims.
They said the new women cited in the Romanian investigation did not consider themselves trafficking victims. And they argued that being confined without an indictment violated their rights.
They got their break in late February. The order came down instructing prosecutors to negotiate with them, according to two people familiar with the move who were not authorized to discuss it. The prime minister believed the Trump administration would be happy with the outcome, a third person said.
On Feb. 25, the Tates officially requested to have their travel restrictions removed.
In a text message the next day, Mr. Tate shared his long-sought victory with someone close with him.
Andrew Tate
I have very details instructions from the americans about crossing borders, phones, passports etc. I cant say more. This goes into instant effect.
In the early hours of Feb. 27, the brothers drove to the airport, as documented in a video titled “The Tate Escape.” They beamed at each other as the plane took off for Florida.
When asked that day whether the Trump administration had aided in the Tates’ release, their lawyer, Mr. McBride, told The Times: “Do the math. These guys are on the plane.”
The Tate brothers shared this video with their followers on Rumble this year.
A Rift on the Right
From the moment they arrived on U.S. soil, the Tates encountered pushback.
Their electronic devices were confiscated by border control officials. Mr. Ingrassia, by then the White House liaison to Homeland Security, tried and failed to have their phones returned, ProPublica reported. (Mr. Ingrassia denied the account.)
That night in Miami, the brothers celebrated over cigars with Mr. Waller, he said. But public backlash was mounting, even among some prominent conservatives.
Megyn Kelly and Ben Shapiro denounced the Tates. Some Republican leaders spoke out, too.
“I certainly don’t think that we should be using any influence in our government to try to get him out of what seemed to be extremely serious charges in Romania,” Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri told HuffPost, referring to Andrew.
After Mr. DeSantis said the brothers were not welcome in Florida, the state’s attorney general announced a criminal investigation of them.
This actually is toxic masculinity, people. This is the real version of it.
Megyn Kelly
Right-wing commentator
America does not need more self-proclaimed pimps.
Ben Shapiro
Right-wing commentator
Florida is not a place where you’re welcome with that type of conduct in the air.
Ron DeSantis
Governor of Florida
As the right-wing rift over the Tates cracked open, Mr. Stone, the Republican operative, deleted an X post saying Mr. Grenell had secured their release. Ms. Habba said that she had “no part” in lifting the Tates’ travel ban.
And Mr. Trump had already said he knew nothing about it.
In mid-March, the brothers flew back to Romania for a court appearance. One of Andrew’s then-girlfriends, Brianna Stern, told the police in Beverly Hills he had assaulted her before he left. On social media, she shared several of his text messages.
Andrew Tate
i really love hitting you its very good for me
and you
its relaxing dont you think
?
Brianna Stern
pookie no i cry
Prosecutors declined to bring charges, citing insufficient evidence. Ms. Stern is suing Andrew, and he has countersued, claiming defamation. He and Tristan are also suing a woman in Florida who is cited as a victim in the Romanian investigation.
In recent months, Andrew has continued to weigh in on American politics, including calling for “civil war” after Mr. Kirk’s assassination. But while he and his brother have flown in and out of Romania, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, they have not returned to the States.
Many of his allies have stopped publicly defending him.
An exception is Nick Fuentes, a rising voice known for his antisemitic and sexist rhetoric. He and Mr. Tate, both critics of Israel, have lavished each other with praise.
Mr. Tate may not be a paragon of Christian morality, Mr. Fuentes said in an October interview with Mr. Carlson. “But men are going with him because he’s putting women in their place.”
Image
Andrew Tate, walking outside in a dark hoodie, turns his face to the camera and grins.
Andrew Tate returned to Romania in March for a required check-in with authorities.Credit...Vadim Ghirda/Associated Press
Matei Barbulescu contributed reporting. Produced by Eli Murray.
Photo credits for illustration: Robert Ghement/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock (Tate brothers); Jacquelyn Martin/Associated Press (Donald Trump Jr.); Pool photo by Chip Somodevilla (Barron Trump); Gage Skidmore/ZUMA Press Wire (Candace Owens); Bill Bowden/Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Joseph McBride); Ross D. Franklin/Associated Press (Tucker Carlson); Kenny Holston/The New York Times (Alina Habba); Jim Watson/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images (Richard Grenell).
Megan Twohey is an investigative reporter at The Times. Her work has prompted changes to the law, criminal convictions and cultural shifts.
Isabella Kwai is a Times reporter based in London, covering breaking news and other trends.
See more on: Andrew Tate, U.S. Politics, Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Richard Grenell, Tucker Carlson
---
vice
alleged human traffickers Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan are suing two of their accusers in a Romanian criminal case against them – insisting that it’s them, not the women, who are the real victims.
Lawyers for the women said they believe the case has no merit, while other women who accuse Andrew Tate of serious abuse described the lawsuit as a “crude and malicious attempt to spread disinformation” and an attempt to silence the brothers’ victims.
}:
Andrew Tate’s Legal Headaches Just Got a Whole Lot Worse
TIM HUME
06.14.23
:{
Andrew Tate, a controversial British-American “manosphere” influencer and his brother, Tristan, are seeking at least $5 million in damages from five individuals they blame for their arrest in Romania on human trafficking charges. The lawsuit, a copy of which was obtained by VICE News, seeks damages on the grounds of defamation, loss of earnings, false imprisonment, conspiracy, and infliction of emotional distress.
}::{
The lawsuit names two women – one of whom is based in Florida, the other in the UK – who it says were responsible for triggering a raid by Romanian police on the brother’s Bucharest compound in April 2022, during which officials removed the women from the property. The others named in the lawsuit are the US woman’s parents, and a male friend of hers, also US-based, who the lawsuit said had notified the US Embassy in Romania of the trafficking allegations.
}::{
The suit has been filed in Palm Beach county, Florida, as the US-based woman and her parents supposedly live there.
}::{
Romanian officials arrested the Tates in December and eventually indicted them, along with two Romanian co-defendants, last month. They’re charged with forming a criminal group to traffick seven women into performing webcam pornography. Romanian authorities say the Tates used the so-called “loverboy” method, in which abusers groom women into sex work with the false promise of love and relationships, to exploit the women.
}::{
The Tates’ lawsuit attempts to flip this narrative on its head, claiming that to the contrary, it was Tristan Tate “who was the victim of a romance scam” by one of the women named in the lawsuit, while Andrew “was collateral damage in the fallout.”
}::{
The lawsuit said that Tristan Tate met the US-based woman on the dating app Hinge and invited her to an event in Miami in December 2021, after which they started a sexual relationship.
}::{
It claims that the woman had been the one pushing to come to Romania and do webcam work for the Tates, and that he had been resistant to the idea, before eventually relenting. But after she arrived in the country, the lawsuit claimed, she had swiftly become disappointed that the brothers were too busy with their business interests to devote time to her, and grew disillusioned. At that point, it claimed, she teamed up with the UK woman who was also working at the Tate property and cooked up a scheme to “defraud the Tate brothers – and ultimately accuse… them of human trafficking and other grave crimes.
}::{
The Tate brothers have denied the charges against them in Romania.
}::{
Prior to his arrest, Andrew Tate has spoken extensively online about his use of the “loverboy” method to groom women into webcam pornography, even selling online courses to men teaching them how to follow in his footsteps.
}::{
“My job was to get women to fall in love with me. Literally,” reads a :{since-deleted page:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: on Tate’s website advertising his PHD (Pimping Hoes Degree) course. “[M]eet a girl, go on a few dates, sleep with her, test if she’s quality, get her to fall in love with me to where she’d do anything I say, and then get her on webcam so we could become rich together.”
}::{
His methods involved searching for potential recruits on dating apps. :{VICE News has spoken to women:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: who matched with him on such apps, before he attempted to groom them into webcam work using the loverboy method.
}::{
}::{
Lawyers for the women targeted in the lawsuit, from the National Center on Sexual Exploitation in the US, told VICE News that they were aware of the filing, but did “not believe the lawsuit has any merit.”
}::{
“We are evaluating next steps as we wait for them to give formal notice,” the organisation said in a statement.
}::{
Benjamin Bull, a National Center on Sexual Exploitation lawyer for one of the witnesses in the Romanian case, told the BBC after the Tates sent a “cease-and-desist” letter to his client that their legal threats were designed to do "one thing and one thing only.”
}::{
“They want these young ladies to climb into a hole and hide, never come forward [or] describe what they saw and what happened to them. It's clearly an effort to intimidate,” he said.
}::{
A group of four women who say they were seriously abused by Andrew Tate when he was living in the UK about a decade ago said in a joint statement issued through their lawyers on Friday that they were alarmed by the Tates’ US lawsuit, which they saw as an attempt to intimidate their victims.
}::{
“We are deeply concerned by these developments, which in our view amount to nothing more than a crude and malicious attempt to spread disinformation, disclose personal and private information, and attack those brave enough to speak out against their abusers,” said the statement from the women, who have :{filed their own lawsuit:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: against him in Britain.
}::{
The experiences of three of the women – two of whom were recruited by Tate to work for his webcam business, the other of whom was in a romantic relationship with him – were :{first revealed:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: by :{VICE News:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: earlier this year.
}::{
“We stand in solidarity with all of the alleged victims of the Tates, and commend all those who have come forward to date,” said the statement. “We will not be intimidated into silence.”
}::{
Lawyers for the Tate brothers did not respond to requests for comment.
}:
duck 7 23
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Jan 11, 2023Tristan Tate, who is also a former kickboxer turned social media influencer, was detained in December as part of an investigation into human trafficking and rape by Romania's anti-organised...
:{Andrew Tate and brother Tristan sue their accusers in human trafficking ...:(style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-optical-sizing:inherit;font-kerning:inherit;font-feature-settings:inherit;font-variation-settings:inherit;vertical-align:top;display:inline-block;max-width:100%;text-wrap:nowrap;overflow:hidden;text-overflow:ellipsis;background-color:#ffff66;"):}:
Jul 14, 2023The widely followed former professional kickboxer and his brother, Tristan, are seeking at least $5 million in the lawsuit, which was filed in Palm Beach County against the woman, her parents,...
:{Tristan Tate Age, Net Worth, Wiki, Height, Girlfriend - WikiaBio:(style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-optical-sizing:inherit;font-kerning:inherit;font-feature-settings:inherit;font-variation-settings:inherit;vertical-align:top;display:inline-block;max-width:100%;text-wrap:nowrap;overflow:hidden;text-overflow:ellipsis"):}:
Nov 3, 2022Tristan Tate is a British-American businessman, television personality, pundit, model, martial artist, and former kickboxer. He also has a background in martial arts. His success in kickboxing, business, being a commentator on fights, and other forms of martial arts contributed to the accumulation of his net worth.
:{Andrew Tate and His Brother Tristan Are Suing Their Alleged ... - VICE:(style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-optical-sizing:inherit;font-kerning:inherit;font-feature-settings:inherit;font-variation-settings:inherit;vertical-align:top;display:inline-block;max-width:100%;text-wrap:nowrap;overflow:hidden;text-overflow:ellipsis"):}:
Jun 14, 202306.14.23. Andrew Tate, a controversial British-American "manosphere" influencer and his brother, Tristan, are seeking at least $5 million in damages from five individuals they blame for their ...
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Tristan Tate is a British-American kickboxer, entrepreneur, and influencer. He is a successful businessman, media personality, commentator, model, martial artist, and former kickboxer. He was born and raised in the English town of Luton, United Kingdom. He is currently under house arrest in Bucharest, Romania on charges of human trafficking.
:{Who is Tristan Tate and what is his net worth? | The Sun:(style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-optical-sizing:inherit;font-kerning:inherit;font-feature-settings:inherit;font-variation-settings:inherit;vertical-align:top;display:inline-block;max-width:100%;text-wrap:nowrap;overflow:hidden;text-overflow:ellipsis"):}:
Dec 30, 2022TRISTAN TATE, like his brother, is a former professional kickboxer who became a popular social media influencer. He amassed a large following due his adventures and lavish lifestyle prior to...
:{Tristan Tate (@TateTheTalisman) / Twitter:(style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-optical-sizing:inherit;font-kerning:inherit;font-feature-settings:inherit;font-variation-settings:inherit;vertical-align:top;display:inline-block;max-width:100%;text-wrap:nowrap;overflow:hidden;text-overflow:ellipsis"):}:
Tristan Tate (@TateTheTalisman) / Twitter Tristan Tate @TateTheTalisman Kickboxer, Father, Businessman. Brother of @cobratate rumble.com/tatespeech Bucharest, Romania cobratate.com/newsletter Joined December 2013 613 Following 2.1M Followers 1 Subscription Tweets Replies Media Likes Tristan Tate @TateTheTalisman · Apr 5 Iftar. 4,431 10.8K 215.6K
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Tristan Tate (born on July 15th, 1988) is an American-British internet personality, former kickboxer, Andrew Tate's brother, actor and television personality known for Kings of the Internet (2022). He is a 2x IKSA British Kickboxing Champion, entrepreneur, self-made multi-millionaire, and one of the world's most notorious international playboys
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96K Followers, 30 Following, 154 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Tristan Tate (@talismantate_tristantate) 96K Followers, 30 Following, 154 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Tristan Tate (@talismantate_tristantate) Something went wrong. There's an issue and the page could not be loaded. ...