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Some MAGA world allies are speaking out in disgust over UFC President Dana White’s chummy Friday meetup with social media personality and self-described misogynist Andrew Tate, who has been charged with human trafficking in Romania.
The two avowed Donald Trump supporters shook hands and embraced at a Las Vegas tournament for a league known as “Power Slap,” a slap fighting competition White debuted in 2023, days after footage emerged of him slapping his wife after she slapped him during a physical altercation in Mexico. Tate's brother Tristan, who is also charged in the Romanian sex trafficking case, received a warm welcome by White as well on Friday. (The Tate brothers have denied wrongdoing.)
"Welcome to the States, boys," White can be heard telling the brothers in a video clip of the exchange.
The friendly exchange follows the brothers' arrival to the United States last month after Romanian prosecutors lifted a travel ban against the sex trafficking defendants, who have both U.S. and British citizenship. Meanwhile, Florida’s attorney general has opened a "preliminary inquiry" into the brothers as he considers bringing potential charges against them.
Andrew Tate is a popular figure in the internet sector known as the “manosphere,” a constellation of deeply misogynistic right-wing influencers. He has called Trump “the last hope” for Western civilization. Last year, after Trump’s election victory, he suggested he hit the gas pedal in his car when he saw a woman at a crosswalk because “you no longer have rights."
Some Trump supporters were appalled by White, a close Trump ally, literally embracing Tate on Friday. Mediaite reported that several popular right-wing influencers, including Dana Loesch and Ian Miles Chong, voiced their displeasure over it.
It seems foolish for anyone to think being friendly with Andrew Tate is beyond the pale for White. Fundamentally, this was a meeting between a man who we’ve seen smack his wife (White has since apologized for the incident) and a man who has publicly fantasized about harming women. Plus, Tate is a former professional kickboxer. And they're both fervent Trump supporters. I suspect they have a lot to talk about.
Part of me feels that the Trump supporters up in arms over this meeting are most perturbed about having a mirror shown to themselves. Because while Tate’s views are vile, I’d argue they are no less vile than Trump, the self-described “protector” of women who was found liable for sexual abuse by a jury of his peers, and who is leading a misogynistic movement of men.
So, perhaps, they want to extract Tate from their movement. It will do no good, when we can all see the ties that bind: which, in this case, is deep antipathy toward women and their treatment as equals.