Explaining the Right is a weekly series that looks at what the right wing is currently obsessing over, how it influences politics—and why you need to know.
Despite his repeated claims that he is in favor of “law and order,” Donald Trump’s administration is pressuring the Romanian government to roll back travel restrictions on right-wing influencer Andrew Tate, who has been accused of rape and human trafficking.
Tate is currently under house arrest following his 2023 arrest. Tate and his brother, Tristan, along with two other figures, have been accused of luring women to their home, forcing the women into debt, and pressuring them into filming pornographic scenes that were then shared online. They deny the charges.
The men are also facing similar charges in the United Kingdom.
The women who have made the allegations against Tate have spoken out against Trump’s efforts. Matthew Jury, the lawyer representing the four alleged victims, told the BBC they are “absolutely bewildered why the Trump administration has decided to interfere in this way.”
Tate is a self-described misogynist who sells instructional videos instructing men how to pick up women and has advised men to physically assault women who cheat and to force them into sex. He is one of the most prominent figures in the right-wing “manosphere” of content producers popular among conservative audiences.
He is also a Trump supporter. After the 2024 election, Tate praised Trump as a “hero” who “single handedly kept two evil war mongering she witches out of office,” referring to Sec. Hillary Clinton and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Following his arrest, Tate has become a right-wing cause célèbre. Donald Trump Jr. has described Romania’s legal action against Tate as “absolute insanity,” while Trump financier Elon Musk has praised Tate for his long-shot campaign to run for British prime minister.
During his 2024 campaign, Trump pandered to the misogynist manosphere with multiple interviews and appearances on the podcasts and other streaming shows that make up that world. Those appearances were seen as key to Trump’s improved performance with young men in the election compared to the results in 2016 and 2020.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, another man who loves faux masculinity.
Trump and figures in his administration like Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have also extolled the virtues of misogynist, right-wing faux masculinity for years—a sentiment embodied by Tate.
Advocating for Tate, even with the distasteful rhetoric the influencer has used and the seriousness of the charges against him, are a pathway for Trump to show the manosphere and its audience that he is on their side and advocating for them. Many of these men share the world view that decades of fights for sexual equality are suppressing their rights and are yearning for a return to a misogynist system where women’s views and roles are minimized.
Furthermore, Trump himself is an admitted serial assaulter of women. He has bragged about groping women, been accused of sexual assault, and has surrounded himself with other men that have been the subject of similar accusations.
In Trump’s view, Tate is a fellow traveler. Advocating for the misogynist also feeds into the false narratives promoted by Trump, Musk, and other conservative figures that international governments are in on a conspiracy to suppress “traditional” (misogynist) values.
When Trump rails against “woke” mindsets and pushes to purge it from the U.S. government by rolling back civil rights protections, that also applies to global governments. In their distorted view, Romania’s government is being too “woke” by restricting the movement of an accused sex trafficker.
Trump is not tough on crime, as the freed perpetrators of Jan. 6 can attest to. But now that also applies to alleged crime in other countries, as long as the cause of fake masculinity can be advanced.
Campaign Action
)
English (US) ·