White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s one-word answer was flagged Saturday as a clear sign of the damage Jeffrey Epstein has wreaked on MAGA.
Asked whether President Donald Trump or his administration planned to intervene in the UK extradition case against Andrew and Tristan Tate, Leavitt replied flatly: “No.”
The i Paper columnist Sarah Baxter argued Saturday that the single syllable reveals how thoroughly Trump’s ties to the late Jeffrey Epstein have depleted his political capital. The president, she wrote, can no longer afford to spend it defending a pair of accused sex abusers — despite them being major allies.
Secretary of State Marco Rubioechoed the posture a day earlier from the Philippines. “There’s no role for us to play at this moment or maybe ever in that regard,” Rubio told reporters, according to Axios.
The cold shoulder marks a striking reversal. In February 2025, the Financial Times reported that Trump officials pressured Romania to ease travel restrictions on the Tates, and days later the brothers boarded a private jet to Fort Lauderdale.
The Tates, dual British-American citizens, were arrested by U.S. Marshals in Miami on July 18 after British prosecutors filed 38 new sex-crime charges, bringing their combined total to 59 counts. Andrew Tate faces 42 charges including rape, sex trafficking and offenses relating to indecent images of a child; Tristan Tate faces 17.
Their lawyer, Joseph McBride, who previously represented January 6 defendants, has tried to press familiar buttons. He wrote on X that the brothers were being held as “political prisoners on American soil” in solitary confinement. Andrew Tate himself claimed he was locked in a unit next to “a cannibal who screams throughout the night.”
None of it has moved the administration.
On Capitol Hill, Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ), a House Oversight Committee member, sent a letter to Chair James Comer this week requesting an investigation into “potential political interference” surrounding the Tates’ case. Ansari also asked that Barron Trump be called to testify about any knowledge of the brothers’ alleged crimes. A spokesperson for the Tates has previously called reports linking Barron to Andrew Tate fake news.
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