There’s Only One Thing Standing in the Way of the Tate Brothers’ Extradition. It’s, Uh, Not Good.

Life By Enter your email to receive alerts for this author. Sign in or create an account to better manage your email preferences. Unsubscribe from email alerts Are you sure you want to unsubscribe from email alerts for Christina Cauterucci? July 21, 20261:09 PM Daniel Mihailescu/AFP via Getty Images Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. A little over a year since their triumphant return to the U.S. with the blessing of the Trump administration, pornography kingpins and masculinist influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate were arrested in Miami on Saturday on new charges of sex trafficking and rape filed by U.K. prosecutors. The claims, which stem from alleged violations that took place between 2010 and 2017, add to a mounting list of criminal charges against the brothers, who hold dual U.S.–British citizenship. The former professional kickboxers had already been charged in England with rape, human trafficking, and sexual assault, which they have evaded by steering clear of British soil. They have also been under investigation in Romania since 2022 for allegedly pressuring dozens of women—and one 17-year-old girl—into making porn for their business. The Romanian claims against Andrew Tate also include accusations of rape and having sex with a 15-year-old girl; the new British charges against him include ones involving sexual images of children. While each individual allegation is harrowing, together, they comprise a stomach-turning picture of a sprawling pornography empire built on coercion and a violently male-supremacist worldview the Tates are exporting to boys and young men across the globe. Facing the threat of criminal conviction in multiple countries, the Tate brothers have leveraged their popularity with young men and right-wing media personalities to maintain their lavish lifestyle among the jet set and stay out of reach of law enforcement officials. Now British prosecutors are seeking the brothers’ extradition from the U.S., setting up a high-profile dilemma for the Trump administration: Will the president and his associates send the Tates to be tried and possibly imprisoned in the U.K.? Or will they protect their allies in the global movement for domineering misogyny? Though the Tate brothers have drawn reproach from across the political spectrum, they have a long history of sympathetic treatment from numerous influential figures on the right, including those close to Donald Trump. While they were barred from leaving Romania during prosecutors’ investigation, the Tates wisely got in good with right-wing podcasters Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens, both of whom interviewed and defended Andrew Tate, as did Charlie Kirk. Andrew Tate also cultivated friendships with two of Trump’s sons. Donald Trump Jr. conducted a public, livestreamed conversation with him during his father’s 2024 campaign, and Barron Trump spoke with him over Zoom. Unsurprisingly, the Trump sons are fans of the Tate enterprise and believe not only that the Tates are innocent but also that the criminal charges are political efforts to silence essential voices in the discourse. Accordingly, a New York Times investigation found, one of the first acts of Trump’s second term in office was to orchestrate the brothers’ escape from Romania to safety and freedom in the U.S. Multiple Trump administration officials reportedly pushed Romanian prosecutors to remove the Tates’ travel restrictions, which they did. One month after Trump’s inauguration in 2025, the brothers were on a private plane to Florida, boasting about their victory. White House officials reportedly intervened again when customs officials seized their electronic devices. The brothers immediately began traveling freely again, appearing at parties in Las Vegas, Miami, and Dubai. Now, with an official extradition request on the table, Trump must decide how much political capital he’s willing to expend on the Tates. Under a strengthened extradition treaty that went into effect in 2007, the U.S. and the U.K. are each bound to furnish people accused of crimes when the other country demands they return to be prosecuted. During the first Trump administration, the president made an extraordinarily rare exception to deny an extradition request for an American diplomat’s wife, who allegedly hit and killed a teenager with her car in central England. Then–Secretary of State Mike Pompeo cited diplomatic immunity to defend the decision, provoking the ire of British authorities. Although no such immunity protects the Tates from international prosecution, the potential for international reproof has never stopped Trump from, say, disrupting global trade or threatening new colonial exploits. And the Tate brothers’ lawyer, Joseph McBride, who has also defended Jan. 6 insurrectionists—and has styled himself as a third Tate brother—appears to be trying to bait Trump and his allies into using their influence to protect the brothers. In a statement on Saturday, McBride said that the brothers’ arrests were “greenlighted by a low-level functionary” at the Department of Justice without the participation of senior leadership. (The DOJ told the Associated Press that its criminal division leadership did approve the arrests.) A U.S. district court judge will evaluate the Tates’ case to determine whether they should be extradited, but Secretary of State Marco Rubio, no doubt acting with characteristic fidelity to the orders of the president, will have the final word. Conservatives such as Megyn Kelly, Ben Shapiro, and Ron DeSantis—the latter the governor of one of the Tates’ adopted home states— have opposed the kid-glove treatment of the brothers. But Trump has not suffered from their discontent. MAGA die-hards will follow the president’s lead on this; whatever damage Trump’s approval ratings have suffered in his second term, it has been due to his deployment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in U.S. cities and military actions in Iran. The president has not incurred any significant blowback for his controversial pardons of convicted donors and Jan. 6 rioters, at least one of whom went on to sexually abuse two young children after he was released from prison. Nor has Trump lost support for his mistreatment of women or the masculinist worldview he shares with the Tates. If anything, it helped him win the presidency twice. Trump may yet choose to abide by the extradition treaty with England. But if he doesn’t, he doesn’t have much to lose. Get the best of news and politics Sign up for Slate's evening newsletter. Donald Trump Internet Culture Jurisprudence Politics United Kingdom Men