Off in the depths of the QAnon and PizzaGate corners of the internet, conspiracists swear Donald Trump is quietly preparing charges to bring down notorious sex trafficking circles operated by celebrities. Back in reality, the Financial Times reports the Trump administration is pressuring Romanian authorities to let Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan Tate travel freely despite facing charges of sexual misconduct and human trafficking.
Per the report, Trump officials have been pushing for Romania to return the Tates’ passports and lift travel restrictions on the brothers, who have been banned from leaving the country until their criminal case concludes. The pressure campaign started on phone calls last week and then got raised in-person when Trump special envoy Richard Grenell, who met with the Romanian foreign minister Emil Hurezeanu at the Munich Security conference.
Grenell—who served as Trump’s ambassador to Germany during his first term only to get iced out by German leaders for cozying up with the far-right, Nazi-aligned (and now Elon Musk-backed) Alternative for Germany (AfD)—has been publicly supportive of the Tates. In a post made earlier this month, Grenell seemed to suggest the Tate brothers were the victims of a concerted effort to target “conservatives around the world,” which he believed was funded by USAID programs.
So, okay, that’s one potential explanation of what happened to the Tates. The United States government, through a series of funds indirectly directed to Romania, successfully influenced the nation’s law enforcement apparatus to pursue anti-woke personalities and charge them with fake crimes in order to make an example of them.
Let’s try another one, just to see if it might make a little more sense. Tate, a self-described misogynist and “king of toxic masculinity” who was credibly accused of sexual abuse, fled his home in the United Kingdom and went to Romania as local law enforcement investigated allegations against him. While in Romania, which he claimed to have chosen in part because of the country’s lax laws against sex crimes, he and his brother operated an exploitative camgirl and porn website which allegedly included luring young women—some as young as 15—to their home and forcing them to partake in sexual acts on camera. Money made from the operation funded the Tates’ extravagant lifestyle, allowing them to develop a cult of personality that targeted disaffected young men and tempted them with the allure of their obscene image of masculinity.
All of that is pretty well documented, including by the Tates themselves who happily brag about all the people they have ripped off along the way. But maybe there’s an extremely elaborate international conspiracy afoot! Hard to say which is more likely. Occam’s razor is pretty dull these days.
In 2022, the Romanian government indicted the brothers on charges of human trafficking, sexual misconduct, money laundering, operating an organized crime group, and committing rape. As prosecutors continue to attempt to move the case forward, the Tates are prevented from leaving Romania. All the while, cases keep building against them. Last week, a woman in Florida accused the brothers of trying to recruit her into their webcam sex ring.
Meanwhile, the Romanian government might be more receptive to the Trump administration’s pressure soon. Last year, far-right politician Calin Georgescu unexpectedly won the first round of presidential voting in the country, though that victory was annulled by the nation’s highest court over concerns that the election process was corrupted by an outside influence campaign. Vice President JD Vance criticized the Romanian court over the decision, so should Georgescu take the highest office, communication between the leadership of the two countries might become more friendly, and Romania might be willing to hear the Trump administration’s calls to let up on the accused human traffickers.