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Florida governor Ron DeSantis has said Andrew and Tristan Tate are not welcome in the state as the brothers’ plane landed from Romania.
“No, Florida is not a place where you’re welcome with that type of conduct,” he said. “Our Attorney General, James Uthmeier, is looking into what state hooks and jurisdictions we have to deal with this.”
After landing in Florida, Tate claimed he and his brother are “largely misunderstood”. “We’ve yet to be convicted of any crime in our lives ever. We have no criminal record anywhere on the planet, ever,” he told reporters.
An official confirmed that prosecutors lifted their travel ban, and it is understood they left the country shortly after 5am local time from Baneasa airport.
The controversial influencer, 38, and his sibling, 36, are facing a series of criminal charges in the country including rape, human trafficking and exploiting women.
Tate, a self-described misogynist, had been recently released from house arrest but was not allowed to leave Romania.
They have been vocal supporters of President Donald Trump, with Romania’s foreign minister recently denying that the US administration had pressured Bucharest to lift travel restrictions.
Tate says they are ‘largely misunderstood’
Andrew Tate has claimed that he and his brother are “largely misunderstood.”
”There’s a “lot of opinions about us, a lot of things that go around about us on the internet”, he told reporters after arriving in Florida.
“We’ve yet to be convicted of any crime in our lives ever. We have no criminal record anywhere on the planet, ever.”
Last December, a Romanian court ruled that the human trafficking case against the brothers couldn’t go to trial due to “significant procedural flaws” by the prosecution, but the case was sent back to officials for further review.
The brothers also face rape and sexual aggression accusations in Britain.
Trump reason Tates feel safe to return to US, says lawyer
Pesident Donald Trump is the “primary” reason the Tate brothers feel safe to return to the US, their lawyers reportedly said in a statement.
“As a result, they are excited to call America their home again,” Joseph McBride said, according to the BBC.
He added that Andrew and Tristan Tate “plan to return to Romania at the end of March to meet the prosecutor before returning to the United States”.
Both brothers have been vocal supporters of Trump, with Romania’s foreign minister recently denying that the US administration had pressured Bucharest to lift travel restrictions.
The US president yesterday told reporters that he knew nothing about the brothers’ release.
What controversial comments has Tate made?
Andrew Tate first rose to prominence after appearing on the reality TV show in 2016, but was removed after six days after a video emerged that appeared to show him attacking a woman.
At the time, the kickboxing champion said the footage had been edited and was a “total lie trying to make me look bad”.
However, his audience has significantly grown over the last decade and he now boasts over 10 million followers on X, after Elon Musk reinstated his account.
He regularly flaunts an ultra-luxurious lifestyle of private jets, cars and yachts, and previously told environmental activist Greta Thunberg that he would send a list of the “respective enormous emissions” of his 33 cars.
His impact in spreading misogyny among young men has been noted, and he has previously described women as “intrinsically lazy” and claimed “there was no such thing as an independent female”.
He also stated that he was “absolutely a misogynist” during an interview, and was previously banned from Twitter for saying women should “bear responsibility” for being sexually assaulted.
As a result of his ideology, he remains banned on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.
Court rules in favour of Tates
A court in Romania yesterday ruled in favor of an appeal by Andrew and Tristan Tate to lift the seizure of multiple assets, according to their spokesperson Mateea Petrescu.
The assets include six luxury vehicles, land and properties, and company shares. All previously frozen bank accounts have been unfrozen, she said.
“While some assets remain under precautionary seizure, this ruling marks a significant step toward justice,” she added.
How did Andrew Tate make his money?
Speculation around Andrew Tate’s wealth varies wildly, with the influencer describing himself as a “self-made multi-millionaire” who earnt his money from the adult entertainment industry and his various online courses.
“I had 75 women working for me in four locations and I was doing $600,000 a month from webcam,” he previously said in a podcast interview.
He also wrote on a website: “My job was to meet 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.”
After his arrest, several of his possessions were seized by the Romanian authorities but he won a legal challenge last year to have them returned. They included a number of luxury cars including two McLarens, four Ferraris, a Maybach, a Maserati and a Lamborghini.
‘I just know nothing about it,’ says Trump on Tates’s visit
US president Donald Trump said he knows nothing about his administration pressuring the Romanian government to release Andrew or Tristan Tate.
Mr Trump told reporters yesterday in the Oval Office that he did not know anything about the circumstances: “I just know nothing about it. We’ll check it out. We’ll let you know.”
The Tates’s departure came after Romanian foreign minister Emil Hurezeanu said this month that a Trump administration official expressed interest in the brothers’ case at the recent Munich Security Conference.
The minister insisted no pressure was applied to lift restrictions on the Tates after a Financial Times report on the meeting caused a stir in Romania.
Florida’s attorney general will conduct inquiry into Tate brothers
After Andrew and Tristan Tate arrived in Florida, state attorney general James Uthmeier said in a social media post that his office would conduct a “preliminary inquiry” into them.
“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,” said Uthmeier, an appointee of Republican governor Ron DeSantis.
DeSantis earlier said the Tate brothers were not welcome in the state. “No, Florida is not a place where you’re welcome with that type of conduct,” he said.
Tate brothers have built relationship with Trump administration
The pair have long been vocal supporters of the US president, and have many supporters of their own in his inner circle.
This includes Paul Ingrassia, Mr Trump’s choice for White House liaison for the Department of Justice, and previously one of the lawyers Andrew Tate hired to fight a human trafficking case. Andrew Tate has also been friends with Donald Trump Jr since 2016, who previously called his detention “absolute insanity”.
Close Trump ally Elon Musk also backed Andrew Tate on Twitter / X recently – the platform that he owns – when he said he wanted to “become the prime minister” of the UK.
“He’s not wrong,” replied Musk, to a video in which Andrew Tate accused the country’s political establishment of being “corrupt” and having “failed people generationally”. Both brothers were also both followed by vice-president JD Vance on the platform in December.
Northern Ireland MP launched legal action against Tate
In January, Northern Ireland MP Sorcha Eastwood launched legal action against Andrew Tate and his brother over social media posts.
A lawyer for the Alliance Party MP said the posts were made on Friday, the day after she had told MPs that she was a “survivor of abuse” and had received rape threats.
Kevin Winters of KRW Law said: “We act on behalf of Sorcha Eastwood MP.
“We are instructed to issue legal proceedings against Andrew and Tristan Tate over their continued publication of social media postings on 10 January 2025.
“We can confirm service of correspondence on today’s date to their solicitors. In light of the sensitivities of the issues engaged, we have no further comment at this stage.”
His comments on social media came after Ms Eastwood told the House of Commons that a member of the public “came up and said they wanted to rape me” during a school visit she was leading at Stormont.
Lawyer for four alleged victims say news is ‘dismaying’
A lawyer representing four women who have accused Andrew Tate of rape and coercive control in the UK has said the news is “disgusting and dismaying”.
Matthew Jury, their solicitor at McCue Jury & Partners, said: “The news that pressure by the Trump administration has led to Andrew Tate, and his brother Tristan, being allowed to leave Romania by its authorities is equal parts disgusting and dismaying.”
He added: “The UK government knew this might happen more than a week ago. The fact that nothing seems to have been done to prevent it is concerning. One can only hope action will now be taken.
“Given that Prime Minister Starmer is in the US today to meet with President Trump, perhaps his team may take the opportunity to raise this issue.”
Source: independent.co.uk
