Photo: Alexandru Dobre/AP
The Republican Party is obsessed with sex trafficking, grooming, and pedophilia.
For years, the GOP has built its brand on a bizarre, often conspiratorial fixation with sex trafficking, invoking this trafficking panic to justify border militarization and its assault on LGBTQ+ adults and children.
And yet, when an actual accused rapist and alleged human trafficker comes along, Republicans rush to his defense – and lobby to bring him back to the United States.
When an actual accused rapist and alleged human trafficker comes along, Republicans rush to his defense.
President Donald Trump’s administration has successfully lobbied to bring Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan back to the U.S. from Romania, where Tate faces charges of human trafficking, sexual misconduct, and money laundering.
American officials first brought up Tate’s case in a call with the Romanian government last week. At an international conference, Trump’s special envoy Richard Grenell pressed Romanian authorities to lift travel restrictions on the self-described misogynist influencer, the Financial Times reported.
Tate, a former professional kickboxer and avid Trump supporter, has used his massive social media following to spread his reactionary politics and violent hatred of women, influencing a generation of boys and young men by preying on their insecurities and promising quick riches through affiliate marketing schemes.
Prosecutors in Romania allege that Tate and his brother set up a criminal enterprise and used it to sexually exploit multiple people.
Despite these serious allegations, Republican figures and influencers have repeatedly defended Tate.
Former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., who has been investigated for sex trafficking himself, previously offered support to Tate, saying that the charges always seemed “suspect.” Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson traveled to Romania for a softball interview with Tate, allowing the influencer to portray himself as a family man who is merely a victim of “the matrix” and the mainstream media.
Allegations of sexual harassment and assault are no longer a line that can’t be crossed in conservative politics. Trump himself has been repeatedly accused of sexual assault and harassment, found liable by a jury of sexual abuse, and notoriously had a close friendship with the serial sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
Despite a sex trafficking probe that closed without charges, Gaetz took the stage for a speech at the Republican National Convention.
And when former Republican Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert pleaded guilty to trying to pay off men he had sexually abused as a high school wrestling coach, prominent Republicans, including three former congressmen, supported him enough to write letters in defense of his character to a federal judge. (To be clear, the Democratic Party is also guilty of downplaying or defending abusers within its own ranks; this is not a partisan problem.)
But the GOP’s embrace of Tate, and other sex criminals on the right, reveals the hollowness of the Republican Party’s anti-trafficking campaign. Trafficking is not a real issue for Republican lawmakers – it’s a rhetorical weapon used to advance draconian crackdowns, delegitimize political opponents, and launch broader attacks on progressive and feminist movements.
If they were serious about fighting trafficking, then they would focus instead on labor protections and expanding social safety net services for the most vulnerable populations.
They will lobby for Andrew Tate before they ever lift a finger for an actual victim.
Even Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis sought to distance himself from the Tate brothers, saying that Florida is not a place where they’re welcome.
“I don’t know how it came to this,” DeSantis said. “We were not involved, we were not notified. I found out through the media.”
As Republican politicians continue their fixation on the supposed trafficking epidemic, demanding border crackdowns and pretending to be champions for exploited children, remember where their loyalties lie. They will lobby for Andrew Tate before they ever lift a finger for an actual victim.
For the Trump administration, trafficking is not a crisis to solve. It’s a crisis to exploit.
