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LAST UPDATE | 27 Feb
ANDREW TATE, WHO had been facing rape and human trafficking charges in Romania, has landed in the US after a travel ban imposed on the pair during a human trafficking investigation was lifted.
The flight was bound for Fort Lauderdale airport in Florida – located less than 50 miles from US President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.
The Trump administration reportedly pressed the Romanian government to lift travel restrictions on the brothers earlier this month.
But Florida’s governor Ron DeSantis has criticised the arrival of the Tates, saying that his state was not involved in organising their trip and did not welcome them.
“I don’t know how it came to this,” DeSantis said.
Tate, who cultivated a global social media following based on giving misogynistic advice to men, is a dual British-US citizen.
After landing in the US with his brother Tristran, Andrew Tate said he is “misunderstood” and criticised “media spin” in coverage of his case.
Speaking to reporters outside Fort Lauderdale airport, alongside his brother, he said: “We live in a democratic society where it’s innocent until proven guilty and I think my brother and I are largely misunderstood.
“There’s a lot of opinions about us, a lot of things that go around about us on the internet.
“We’ve yet to be convicted of any crime in our lives ever, we have no criminal record anywhere on the planet, ever.
“Our case was dismissed on the 19th of December in Romania under the Biden administration, and our prosecutor recently decided, because we have no active indictment in court, to let us go and return.”
Florida’s gvernor DeSantis said before the brothers landed that the state was not involved in organizing their trip, did not welcome them and had been exploring legal options to prevent the visit.
“Florida is not a place where you’re welcome with that type of conduct in the air,” he told a news conference.
“And I don’t know how it came to this. We were not involved, we were not notified.”
The brothers were aboard a flight that departed from Bucharest, Romania at 6am (4am Irish time) this morning, marking the first time that Andrew has been out of the eastern European country since his 2022 arrest.
The former professional kickboxer was charged along with his brother Tristan and two Romanian women in 2023 on charges including “setting up an organised criminal group… trafficking in persons… [and] rape”.
The brothers say they are innocent.
In August last year Tate was placed on house arrest but a trial date to answer the charges he faces was not set. Last month, a Romanian lifted the house arrest order imposed on Tate, replacing it with judicial control for 60 days.
The judicial control measure grants Tate the freedom to travel throughout Romania, but it was said that he was not allowed to leave the country.
In the UK, Andrew Tate is also facing allegations from four women who are bringing a civil case against Tate at the High Court in the UK accusing him of rape and coercive control between 2013 and 2016.
In a statement issued on today, a spokesperson for the brothers said six cars and five properties had been returned, but some assets remained under “precautionary seizure”.
The statement said returned cars included two Audis, a Nissan, a Mercedes-Benz, and a Ferrari.
Andrew Tate’s 100% stake in “War Room Vegas” and Tristan Tate’s 50% stake in “SC Spirit House Enterprises” were also returned, the spokesperson said.
Romania’s anti-organised crime agency, DIICOT, said prosecutors had approved a “request to modify the obligation preventing the defendants from leaving Romania”.
DIICOT added: “These include the requirement to appear before judicial authorities whenever summoned.
“The defendants have been warned that deliberately violating these obligations may result in judicial control being replaced with a stricter deprivation of liberty measure.”
Four women who have accused Tate of rape and coercive control and have brought a civil claim against him in the UK said the news has left them “retraumatised”.
In a joint statement, they said: “We are in disbelief and feel retraumatised by the news that the Romanian authorities have given in to pressure from the Trump administration to allow Andrew Tate to travel around Europe and to the US.
“We can only hope that the British authorities finally take action, do something about this terrifying unfolding situation and ensure he faces justice in the UK.”
Meanwhile, the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre (DRCC) warned that the release of Andrew and Tristan Tate to the US before the conclusion of their criminal investigation “sends a negative message to women across the world of impunity around misogyny and sexual violence”.
DRCC Chief Executive Rachel Morrogh added that the pair’s “poisonous narrative online” may be indirectly responsible for the trauma of women and girls who have experienced sexual, psychological and physical violence at the hands of men who “idolise the Tates”.
“It is absolutely horrifying that one of the most influential countries in the world has successfully lobbied to ease travel restrictions on these men, who have promoted and normalised a hatred of women,” Morrogh said.
“The Tates have been investigated and charged with serious crimes against women and this is something that must not be glossed over or normalised.”
Morrogh said the move by the US showed how easily progress on sexual violence “can be rolled back”.
She explained that the DRCC hopes that Taoiseach Micheál Martin considers raising the issue with US President Donald Trump during his upcoming White House visit for St. Patrick’s Day.
“Their rhetoric has real-world consequences for women and girls and although every perpetrator of sexual violence is 100% responsible for their own actions, the amplification of the Tates’ messaging online is harmful,” Morrogh said.
“Normalising and validating the Tates’ poisonous messages will have impacts that will be observed amongst our client community in the years to come, but we also believe it is damaging to the boys and men who consume this content.”
© – AFP 2025 and with additional reporting from Andrew Walsh and Press Association
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