The Loathsome Tate Brothers

National Review Online

Monday, March 03, 2025

 

When controversial “manosphere” influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate flew into Florida on Thursday after having been detained in Romania, Governor Ron DeSantis was clear: “Florida is not a place where you’re welcome.” In Romania, both men are charged with exploiting women for financial gain and forming an organized crime group; in the U.K., Andrew faces rape allegations. The brothers deny all charges.

 

Some Republican groups and influencers were quick to condemn DeSantis. In America, they said, men are innocent until proven guilty. The Tampa Bay Young Republicans even asked the Tate brothers, who are dual U.S.-U.K. citizens, to speak at a meeting: “As free speech absolutists, the Tate’s [sic] 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,” the group said.

 

That they haven’t been convicted of anything doesn’t change the fact that Andrew and Tristan are woman-hating scumbags. Andrew, the more notorious of the two, became popular by telling young men with few role models to blame “the Matrix” for their problems. A supposed shadowy group of elites who enslave men in emotional and financial cages, the Matrix exists to ensure that young men never challenge mainstream narratives. With Andrew’s help, men can “wake up,” realize that they must go to the gym, gain self-respect, power, and wealth, and acquire enough women and children to build an empire.

 

For the Tates, brute power is masculinity. They teach young men to value control and wealth over virtue. As they’ve said many times, the role of women is to be subjugated: women can be pimped out; women are “programmable” “blank slates”; women who put themselves “in a position to be raped” must “bear some responsibility.”

 

If this malevolence isn’t enough, Andrew is also a terrorist sympathizer who on October 7, 2023, when Hamas invaded Israel to rape, murder, and burn alive Israeli civilians, announced he would donate $200,000 to Palestinians. He said when October 7 architect and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed that “I can only pray for a death as heroic as Yahya Sinwar. Brave, defiant in the face of evil and dedicated to his lifes purpose. He deserves eternal rest. He earnt it.”

 

The media speculated that the Trump team pressured Romania to lift the brothers’ travel restrictions, but Trump said that he knew “nothing about that.” Many in Trump’s circle, however, have supported the brothers, who have a perverse — and we use the word advisedly — credibility with parts of the Right.

 

Trump envoy Richard Grenell has said that “I support the Tate brothers as evident by my publicly available tweets.” Elon Musk has retweeted Andrew favorably. Counselor to the President Alina Habba told Andrew on a podcast in January that she was a “big fan” and has “your back out here in the states.” Donald Trump Jr. said in May 2023 that Andrew’s house arrest in Romania was “absolute insanity.” White House Liaison for the Department of Homeland Security Paul Ingrassia, who worked for a law firm that represented the Tates, claimed in 2023 that prosecutors sought to “make an example of two politically incorrect, testosterone-fueled young men because they do not like their message, or cannot withstand any opinion that might frustrate their worldview.”

 

Needless to say, no one who has any standards whatsoever should want to have anything to do with these loathsome cretins. Unfortunately, with their arrival in the U.S., their media footprint is likely to grow larger. We’re tempted to say that the Tates really do represent what progressives call — much too frequently, and often absurdly — “toxic masculinity.” But there’s nothing truly masculine about these brutish low-lifes who oppose everything that makes for responsible manhood.