The Tangled Tale of the Tate Brothers and the Trumps

This podcast is supported by Instagram. With Instagram teen accounts, protections are turned on by default. Yo. Look at this reel. Okay. The secret is on the timing. Don't rush it. Built in content settings limit what teens can see. Messages from strangers just don't show up. And automatic nudges tell them when it's time to get off their phone. Mom, dad, heading out back. Sometimes the best way to think about safety is to not have to think about it at all. Instagram teen accounts, nothing to turn on, safer from the start. From the New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. Over the past decade, the Tate brothers have built a global empire around pornography, hypermasculinity, and overt misogyny even as they were repeatedly accused of assaulting and trafficking women. Today, a Times investigation has found that as their legal troubles mounted, the Tates found powerful allies in the Trump family and the Trump administration. My colleague, Megan Tuohy, explains just how important those alliances became and why they're now starting to unravel. It's Monday, August 3. Megan, welcome back to The Daily. Happy to be here. So about two weeks ago, there was this pretty remarkable scene that played out in Miami, Florida involving the Tate brothers, who you have been reporting on now for many months. Just describe that scene to us. So on July 18, Andrew and Tristan Tate, who are these, like, massively famous figures around the world with a huge online following in the manosphere, They arrive at this bare knuckle boxing match that Andrew is actually scheduled to co host. Which is very manosphere Which is, like adjacent. Yes. Exactly. And, you know, this is like classic Tate's. Andrew is dressed in a tight fitting purple shirt with the buttons open and these chains around his neck. Tristan is in this three piece suit and hat. But as soon as they get out of their car Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Come back. Come back. Come back. Come back. Come back. Come back. Come back. Come back. Come back. Come back. Come back. Come back. Come back. US marshals show up. Come over here by me. Go. And the brothers are handcuffed and arrested Back up. In front of their entourage. And Wow. You could tell that the brothers were really surprised, and so were we. And why? Why were they surprised? Why, especially, were you surprised? Well, US Marshals are part of the US Justice Department. This was a federal action, which means that it was done with the sign off of the Trump administration. And that's surprising because, you know, the Tates have actually had legal troubles in multiple countries prior to this. They've also had some really powerful defenders here in The United States. Mhmm. That's what my reporting partner, Isabella Quai, and I have been actually digging into over the past, like, year and a half, how the Tates developed deep connections to the Trump White …