The inner circle of US President Donald Trump has recently become vocal on Romanian politics, now showing interest in the case of the Tate brothers.
First it was US Vice President JD Vance who unexpectedly called out Romania at the Munich Security Conference last weekend for allegedly undermining its democracy by annulling its presidential elections.
Then, South African-born billionaire Elon Musk went on his platform X to show support for ultra-nationalist presidential candidate Calin Georgescu, after invisible campaign gerrymandering caused the vote to be annulled as Romanian authorities suspect Russian interference in the elections.
Now, Trump’s special envoy Richard Grenell has taken an interest in Andrew Tate, a self-described misogynist influencer who is facing criminal charges in Bucharest, raising the topic of lifting the travel ban against him and his brother Tristan with Romania’s Foreign Minister Emil Hurezeanu in Munich.
No pressure, just a chat, Romanian foreign minister said.
“What I discussed with Mr Grenell was rather cordial, informal, very concentrated,” Hurezeanu told Euronews Romania on Tuesday.
“There was a meeting in the hotel foyer when I asked him if he were coming to Romania,” he explained. “(Grenell) added at the end that he remains interested in the fate of Tate brothers … and we went our separate ways.”
Andrew and Tristan Tate, both dual UK-US nationals, were arrested in Romania in 2022 on charges of human trafficking, sexual misconduct, money laundering, and starting an organised crime group. They have denied the charges.
In January, an appeals court sent the pair’s case back to prosecutors, and they were released from house arrest. They are not allowed to leave the country.
Romanian authorities are currently carrying out a separate investigation into the brothers and have ruled they could be extradited to the UK, where they are wanted as part of an investigation into allegations of rape and human trafficking.
Last week, a woman in the US accused the Tates of conspiring to lure her to Romania, coerce her into sex work and defame her after she gave testimony to Romanian authorities.
The Tate brothers have millions of followers online, where they promote male superiority and what they call an “alpha” lifestyle.
Online and in interviews, Andrew Tate has expressed myriad sexist views, claiming that women “bear responsibility” for being sexually assaulted and that there was “no such thing as an independent female”.
He was barred from several online platforms because of concerns that he was negatively influencing the other users. He is still active on X, with over 10 million followers.
Both brothers are particularly popular in the so-called “manosphere” which some have credited for playing a role in Trump’s re-election.
In November, Tristan Tate boasted that the brothers were instrumental in bringing Trump to the White House, posting on X that “millions of young men in Europe and the US have a healthy rightwing approach to politics that they would not have if Andrew Tate had never appeared on their phone screens.”
Question marks appear
The sudden interest in their politics has puzzled Romanians, yet it is still unclear why Trump’s top allies have all become very outspoken about the eastern European country in a very short period of time.
In addition to Musk and Vance, Grenell and Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr have also publicly criticised Romanian authorities in recent months.
Earlier this month, Grenell wrote that Romania was the “latest example” of how funds distributed by the USAID were “weaponised against people and politicians who weren’t woke.”
Trump Jr backed Vance in disagreeing with the decision of Romania’s constitutional court to annul the presidential election in which relatively unknown Georgescu shot to the top of the vote.
The court made the decision after it emerged that a social media campaign suspected to have been organised by the Kremlin artificially propped up Georgescu’s score.
Vance said over the weekend that the vote’s cancellation was based on “flimsy suspicions of an intelligence agency and enormous pressure from its continental neighbours”.
Georgescu, who has said he plans to run again in the vote’s rerun, has denied that he was helped by an external network and claimed he spent zero money on his election campaign.
