There’s an intra-MAGA fight playing out right now over Andrew Tate, a far-right influencer and self-described misogynist who arrived in Florida on Thursday morning.
Tate, along with his brother Tristan, had been awaiting trial in Romania on human trafficking charges, but they were allowed to return to the United States overnight. Some of his supporters in the online right celebrated: It was a triumph for the rule of law, the conservative commentator Candace Owens posted on X. But some conservatives have criticized his release and the alleged role of the Trump administration in securing his return.
Those critics have tended to be pretty mainstream conservative thought leaders and commentators — folks like the podcaster Ben Shapiro, who complained that “America does not need more self-proclaimed pimps and terror supporters with outstanding criminal allegations of sex trafficking and a history of pornographic distribution.” The critics include members of Trump’s own party, such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
These split reactions to Tate’s arrival are revealing an underlying schism on the right: between the more conventional social conservative wing of the coalition, and the more provocative, manosphere-adjacent realm of tech bros and podcasters who seem ascendant in the second Trump term.
Tate became a far-right podcasting star in the 2020s with his explicitly sexist philosophy of masculinity. He quickly gained a wide following among both young men specifically, and several prominent MAGA figures, including Trump’s own former personal attorney and current adviser Alina Habba, Elon Musk, and Donald Trump Jr.
He and his brother were arrested in 2022, when Tate was charged with rape and the brothers were accused of leading a human trafficking operation. (Both have denied the allegations.)
But reports had been circulating that people in Trump’s orbit were taking on the task of trying to free them. The Financial Times reported that US special envoy Ric Grenell raised the Tates’ case to Romania’s foreign minister at the Munich Security Conference earlier this month.
But not everyone was pleased with the Tates’ return.
In Congress, Republican Sen. Josh Hawley was among the critics. “I would hope our government wasn’t involved in any way,” he told reporters. “I don’t think conservatives should be glorifying this guy at all.”
DeSantis also condemned them, and asked the state’s attorney general to see what legal recourse they had to respond.
“Florida is not a place where you’re welcome with that type of conduct,” he said. “I don’t know how it came to this. We were not involved. We were not notified. Clearly the federal government has jurisdiction whether they want to rebuff his entry into the United States.”
Throughout the first month of Trump’s presidency, Trump has been nearly universally praised by his coalition. The Republican base has remained loyal, even as his popularity among other segments of the American electorate have steadily declined. So this split among elites in the coalition stands out — and raises questions about just how durable these pro-Trump bonds will be.
“We should wait and see, but I can say that if Trump really did bless allowing the Tate brothers to come to the US, it would be the primary exhibit that his administration is guided by a hyper-online right that is very out of touch with the real world and needs to touch grass,” the conservative radio host Erick Erickson posted on X.
Trump, at least, for now, seems to be distancing himself. When asked if he had intervened, Trump was curt. “I know nothing about that,” he said. “I didn’t know anything about it.”
We may still get more details about how or why Tate’s restrictions were lifted, and the Romanian charges haven’t been dropped. But as he reenters the American public square, this schism may continue to widen — especially as both sides vie for more influence over Trump’s policy, over the Republican Party, and over the future of conservatism.
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