Days before Donald Trump’s return to the White House in early 2025, Andrew Tate got some good news.
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 Tate 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 January 14th text message, Tate indicated that help was on the way.
“I had word from The Trump admin that theyre on top of things,” Tate wrote to someone close to him, in a message. “Ive been told ill be free soon but Trump needs to see me in Miami.” [sic]
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The next month, an extraordinary order came down from the highest levels of the Romanian government. The prosecutors were told to find a compromise with the Tates. Despite their misgivings, they lifted the travel restrictions, a move that Romania’s then prime minister, Marcel Ciolacu, thought would appease the Trump administration.
“We’re massively back,” a grinning Andrew Tate announced in a video recorded for his followers on February 27th, 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. A New York Times investigation found that support from Trump administration officials played a crucial role.
[ Influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate to face 21 charges in UKOpens in new window ]
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 Tate to forge alliances with Trump’s advisers and family members.
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
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.
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.
Tate also nurtured relationships with Donald Trump jnr and his younger brother Barron Trump, who recognised the role that young male voters could play in their father’s return to power.
Barron, now 19, admired Andrew, and spoke to 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 Trump’s re-election, some of the Tates’ supporters ascended into the new administration. One of them, diplomatic envoy Richard Grenell, twice discussed their case with Romanian officials, the New York 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 authorised to discuss it.
Shadowy new era
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 commentator Megyn Kelly, who said, “This actually is toxic masculinity.” Some compared the Tates to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Their return also led to a new assault allegation, from a girlfriend who said Andrew Tate beat and strangled her shortly after his arrival in the US. Prosecutors declined to bring charges, but she has filed a lawsuit against him and has been granted a restraining order. He in turn is suing her for defamation.
In a statement, the Romanian prosecutors’ office said the country’s constitution requires them to operate independently and that their actions in the Tates’ case have been legal.
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 Tates’ lawyer said the New York 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 restore their brand. They have visited Kanye West, partied poolside with beautiful women and promoted their business to chanting fans.
By 2015, the Tates had installed women in apartments and a hotel room in Britain, to perform live on webcams for paying customers
“I’m in Dubai, I’m still rich, all I do is win,” Andrew Tate said in a video posted in April that shows him driving off in a Bugatti.
However, 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 US, the Times found, anti-trafficking agents at the Department of Homeland Security have been investigating the Tates for years.
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 Tate 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,” he 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 Tate was arrested in 2014 after a woman reported he had assaulted her.
The next year, Andrew Tate 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 Tate 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 where, Andrew said on another show, “you can get away with s**t 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 Tate 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 Donald Trump. Donald Trump jnr liked one of his supportive Twitter posts and they soon agreed to meet, Andrew Tate recalled on a podcast. He went to Trump Tower in 2017.
“We still inbox each other every couple of days,” Tate said on the podcast, in 2018.
When Andrew was kicked off several social media platforms and decried by 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 organised criminal group and trafficking seven women, and charged Andrew Tate with rape.
The 360-page sealed indictment 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.
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.
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.
Press releases announcing the arrest, the indictment and the ensuing restrictions on the Tates’ movements made headlines around the world. But Andrew Tate, facing the prospect of prison, didn’t retreat from the controversy. He used it.
Tucker to Barron
After his arrest, Tate hired Joseph D McBride, a lawyer who had defended Trump supporters accused of insurrection at the Capitol. In short order, McBride pitched his brash new client to conservative host Tucker Carlson.
McBride recalled telling Carlson that if he flew to Romania for a sit-down with Andrew Tate, “I know we’ll break the internet.”
He was right. The 2023 interview, recorded at Tate’s luxury home on the outskirts of Bucharest, has drawn more than 112 million views.
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,” Carlson said of the charges. “I don’t care what you call it, you weren’t buying, even accused of buying and selling anyone.”
In September 2023, Trump shared on Truth Social, his social media platform, a video of Tristan Tate defending him. “Thank you!” Trump wrote.
McBride, the brothers’ lawyer, pressed their case in meetings with members of Congress, according to an interview he gave to Republican operative Roger Stone. McBride said both male and female politicians were “outraged” at the brothers’ treatment.
Donald jnr showed support, too. “You’ve got people attacking you as far as I’m concerned,” he told Tate in a June 2024 conversation livestreamed on X. “They just want to silence you.”
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 Waller, who has helped run the Tates’ courses and says he is widely seen as the “third brother.”
Allies ascend
When Andrew Tate 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 counsellor to the president who would later serve a brief stint as New Jersey’s top prosecutor, told Andrew Tate on a podcast in January that “I got your back over here.”
And Grenell, a special presidential envoy, privately discussed the Tates’ case with Romanian officials. At Mar-a-Lago last December, he met Victor Ponta, an adviser to Romania’s prime minister.
Ponta had travelled to Trump’s Florida club to make inroads with the president-elect’s inner circle. 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 jnr and Elon Musk, among other conservatives, accused Romania of undermining democracy.
Ponta sensed that informal diplomacy would be a big part of the incoming Trump administration. And Grenell, who would soon negotiate the release of several American detainees in Venezuela, was already positioning himself as a forceful operator.
When asked whether he and Grenell discussed the Tates’ case, Ponta affirmed that they had. “Maybe he saw himself as releasing all the American hostages around the world,” he said, without elaborating further.
In Britain, the women who had accused Andrew Tate of rape and assault a decade earlier were suing him in civil court
Last month, Ponta backpedaled. In a text exchange with the New York Times, he said he didn’t recall whether he and Grenell had talked about the Tates. He then said he was sure they had not.
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.
Soon after the Munich conference, the prime minister posted on social media that the US 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 Tate of rape and assault a decade earlier were suing him in civil court. And prosecutors had authorised trafficking and rape charges against the brothers based on allegations involving three other women.
In the US, 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.
Andrew 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 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 authorised to discuss it. The prime minister believed the Trump administration would be happy with the outcome, a third person said.
On February 25th, the Tates officially requested to have their travel restrictions removed.
In the early hours of February 27th, 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, McBride, said: “Do the math. These guys are on the plane.”
Rift on the right
From the moment they arrived on US soil, the Tates encountered pushback.
Their electronic devices were confiscated by border control officials. Ingrassia, by then the White House liaison to Homeland Security, tried and failed to have their phones returned, ProPublica reported. (Ingrassia denied the account.)
That night in Miami, the brothers celebrated over cigars with 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.
In recent months, Andrew Tate has continued to weigh in on American politics
“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,” Republican senator Josh Hawley told HuffPost, referring to Andrew Tate.
After DeSantis said the brothers were not welcome in Florida, the state’s attorney general announced a criminal investigation of them.
As the right-wing rift over the Tates cracked open, Stone, the Republican operative, deleted an X post saying Grenell had secured their release. Trump counsellor Habba said that she had “no part” in lifting the Tates’ travel ban.
And 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 police in Beverly Hills he had assaulted her before he left. On social media, she shared several of his text messages.
In recent months, Andrew Tate has continued to weigh in on American politics, including calling for “civil war” after Charlie 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 US.
Many of his allies have stopped publicly defending him.
An exception is Nick Fuentes, a rising voice known for his anti-Semitic and sexist rhetoric. He and Andrew Tate, both critics of Israel, have lavished each other with praise.
Tate may not be a paragon of Christian morality, Fuentes said in an October interview with Carlson. “But men are going with him because he’s putting women in their place.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
