Andrew Tate and Conservative Hypocrisy

This column was first published at First Things.

On February 27, Andrew and Tristan Tate landed in Florida after Romania’s Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) lifted their two-year travel ban due to outstanding charges of human trafficking, trafficking of minors, rape, forming an organized criminal group, and money laundering, related to their pornographic webcam business. Andrew is a former kickboxer, and the brothers rose to fame as “pimps” and social media influencers accruing millions of online fans with online courses such as “Hustler University” and the “War Room.”

Despite claims to the contrary by their legions of online supporters, the charges against them were upheld in April 2024 and the brothers remain under judicial control as the complex legal process unfolds. The Tates also face charges of rape and human trafficking in the U.K., and a Romanian court ruled last March that they can be extradited only after Romanian legal proceedings conclude. The Tates deny the allegations and conveniently insist that they are being persecuted by “the matrix” due to their online influence on young men.

The arrival of the Tates in America made international news, as initial reports claimed that the Trump administration had pressured Romanian authorities to lift their travel ban. When asked about the Tates by reporters, President Trump responded: “I didn’t know anything about that.” The Tates do, however, have connections to key administration figures: Donald Trump Jr. has called Andrew Tate’s detention “absolute insanity,” Elon Musk has promoted him, Trump lawyer Alina Habba told Tate she was a “big fan,” and Tate claims that he is “very close with the Trump family.”

Some conservative figures rightly condemned any conservative association with the Tates. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis concurred: “Our Attorney General, James Uthmeier, is looking at what state hooks and jurisdiction we may have to be able to deal with this, but the reality is no, Florida is not a place where you’re welcome with that type of conduct.” Uthmeier added: “Florida has zero tolerance for human trafficking and violence against women. If any of these alleged crimes trigger Florida jurisdiction, we will hold them accountable.”

But Andrew Tate has effectively—and deliberately—split the right, presenting himself as a persecuted, anti-feminist dissident and pivoting, denying, or deceiving when confronted with his own online statements detailing his predatory views and behavior. Tate is a self-professed Muslim who rejects monogamy and promotes polyamory, condemns the nuclear family, has vilely boasted about defiling young Christian girls, and claims that women are incapable of loyalty. Despite that (and more), MAGA influencers such as Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens defend the Tates passionately and vehemently.

The Tate phenomenon is a microcosm of MAGA world’s worst instincts: reactive gullibility and fact-free contrarianism. Despite dozens of hours of online video footage featuring the Tate brothers boasting about their webcam operation, their physical abuse of women, their views on women in general, and in-depth investigative reporting detailing, step-by-step, their grooming tactics—including how to manipulate girls from Christian homes into doing pornography—some alleged conservatives consistently champion the Tates as victims and even ideological fellow travelers. In interviews with both Carlson and Owens, Tate smoothly misrepresented most of the documented facts, and both eagerly bought what he was selling. It is difficult not to conclude that they wanted to.

Many of Tate’s defenders insist that because the brothers have not yet been convicted, it is somehow slanderous to highlight their own publicly stated views. Andrew Tate’s defense of a grotesque video in which he savagely beats a woman with a belt, for example, is that it was consensual, and that he is thus being shamed for his sexual preferences. Conservatives once rejected the idea that “consent” justifies reprehensible behavior and recognized that being aroused by violence against women was the mark of a pervert and a predator.

Andrew Tate doesn’t need to be convicted by a Romanian court to be rejected by conservatives. His own words should be more than enough.

The Tate brothers are a litmus test. Those who support the Tates are defending pimps and pornographers with self-confessed contempt for girls and women. Supporting the Tates because progressives despise them is the equivalent of repeatedly kicking yourself where it hurts while remaining completely convinced that you are striking a blow against “the matrix.” When it comes to violence against women, sexual exploitation, and genuinely predatory men, there should be only one side. No progressive hypocrisy on sexual morality justifies our own, and those willing to support them in the face of the publicly available evidence tell us something ugly about their own wisdom, discernment, and moral credibility.