President Donald Trump’s youngest son is a fan of a woman-hating influencer accused of rape and human trafficking.
Barron Trump, 19, admired divisive manosphere figure Andrew Tate, 39, and spoke with him last year, their mutual friend Justin Waller told The New York Times. Waller, a close ally of Andrew and his brother Tristan, identified himself as their “third brother” on top of playing a “big brother” to Barron.
Barron spoke to Andrew Tate over Zoom last year while getting a suit fitted by Waller’s tailor, according to the outlet. They discussed their shared belief that Romanian prosecutors charging the Tate brothers with a number of sex and trafficking crimes was an effort to silence them.
The Tates were accused by the Romanian authorities of trafficking more than 30 women and creating a criminal group for sexual exploitation. Andrew was separately charged with rape. The brothers also face criminal charges of rape and trafficking in the U.K. They have denied all the charges against them.
Waller noted that Barron never said anything about helping the Tates with their legal battles. The two also talked about supporting Trump’s campaign on their online platforms.
Soon after Trump returned to Washington, a number of Tate supporters found themselves seated within the new administration. The Times found that one of them, Ric Grenell, discussed the Tate case with Romanian officials on two occasions, and the brothers later found themselves free of a travel ban.
Grenell, whom Trump appointed interim president of the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., has previously downplayed his interactions with a Romanian official as a hallway run-in, adding that “no substantive conversation” took place.
He also told the Times: “I have never met the Tate Brothers, I’ve never been to Romania.” Grenell did not comment on reporting that he met an adviser to the Romanian prime minister at Mar-a-Lago last December.
The Tates’ lawyer Joseph McBride referred the Daily Beast to a statement he sent to the Times, emphasizing Waller’s insistence that there was no assistance offered by the Trump family and the U.S. government in connection to Andrew.
“There was no olive branch and no assistance offered from the U.S. side or the Trump family in connection with Andrew’s Romanian case,” he said.
McBride neither confirmed nor denied discussions between the Tate brothers and Barron regarding the Romanian charges.
The White House did not return a request for comment.
Barron has been widely credited with helping his father, 79, gain street cred with young men, while his mother, First Lady Melania Trump, has advocated for online safety and protecting women from the nonconsensual use of sexual images as part of her Be Best campaign. Trump’s youngest child reportedly suggested that his dad speak with influencers and podcasters in the “manosphere,” including Joe Rogan.
After a young man tried to assassinate Trump in the summer of 2024, Andrew Tate told reporters that he spoke to Barron about the shooting.
“I’m very close with the Trump family. I know them well,” he said at the time. “I look forward to, once I am free, being with Donald Trump in person and reminding him that he’s a bulletproof badass.”
Tate is a former professional kickboxer born in the U.S. and raised in the U.K. He and Tristan ran an adult webcam service—Andrew subsequently spoke about how he and his sibling would lure women into the business by dangling the prospect of romantic relationships, and then take the majority of the profits the women made.
The pair also sold courses through “Hustler’s University,” a now-defunct online platform, and Andrew became a well-known figure in the “manosphere” for his extreme misogynistic content.
“It’s bang out the machete, boom in her face, you grip her up by the neck, ‘WHAT’S UP B--H’...you go f--k her,” he once advised his followers on how to deal with allegations of cheating from a partner.
He was also previously banned from Twitter for saying women should “bear responsibility” for being sexually assaulted.
As well as the cases in Eastern Europe, Andrew Tate has also faced allegations that he raped and strangled two women in England over a decade ago. After allegedly attacking one of the women, Tate is said to have written her a text that read: “I love raping you.”
The accuser also claimed he texted her: “Are you seriously so offended I strangled you a little bit?”
In the same case, a third woman claimed she was raped by Tristan. Both brothers deny the claims.
The brothers have been outspoken supporters of Trump, with Andrew saying back in February that the president is “saving America along with the entire western world.”
They have also garnered words of support from Matt Gaetz, himself accused of sexual misconduct, and have been generally feted in right-wing and conservative circles in the U.S. Elon Musk even seemed to suggest that Tate running for prime minister would be good for Britain, despite a clear lack of knowledge about the British legal system.
