A Miami Beach nightclub is drawing intense backlash for playing a rap song by Ye that glorifies Adolf Hitler, while hosting an entourage of right-wing influencers, including Andrew and Tristan Tate, brothers who face charges of rape and human trafficking.
The club, Vendôme, which promotes itself as a Parisian-inspired lounge in South Beach, is known for its selective door policy and table service priced at thousands of dollars.
On Saturday night, the Tates, who were joined by Nick Fuentes, a young white nationalist and avowed antisemite, visited the club. The entourage included the podcaster Myron Gaines and other members of the so-called manosphere.
Videos of the men’s outing soon spread online, showing a D.J. playing the song “Heil Hitler” by Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, while some in the group chanted the song’s name, also its chorus. Some of the people in the video raised a hand in a Nazi salute during the song, which has been banned on multiple music platforms.
In a party bus that had brought the entourage to the club, the same song blared over a speaker, according to another video, which showed some of the men rapping along with the lyrics and at least one of them saluting. It was not clear who recorded the videos.
Steven Meiner, Miami Beach’s mayor and an orthodox Jew, condemned the actions of the group and the club.
“I am deeply disturbed and disgusted by these videos of twisted individuals glorifying Hitler and the murder of millions,” Mayor Meiner said in a statement on Sunday, adding that some of his relatives were killed during the Holocaust.
He said that influencers who spread hate were not welcome in Miami Beach, which has a large Jewish community.
“Antisemitism, hate speech, or the normalization of extremist ideology has no place in our Miami Beach community, our nightlife, or any public setting,” he wrote.
The Anti-Defamation League, a group started in 1913 to combat antisemitism and prejudice, rebuked the nightclub in a series of social media posts.
“Imagine being Jewish, out for a fun night, and now you’re surrounded by people performing Nazis salutes to a song that glorifies the individual responsible for murdering 6 million other Jews,” the group wrote on Sunday. “This is not ok.”
In a statement released on Monday on social media, Vendôme said it had fired three employees and permanently banned the people who were involved in the episode. The club did not name the individual guests.
“Vendôme has a zero-tolerance policy towards antisemitism or any other form of discrimination,” the club said. “Although Vendôme was not aware in advance of the incident, however, it should have never occurred.”
The club said it was enacting “strict content controls” and enhanced management oversight to avoid another episode.
During an appearance on the PBD Podcast, the episode of which was released online on Tuesday, Andrew Tate said that he did not request the song.
“If someone got shot in that club, they would have said, ‘Andrew Tate’s at a nightclub where this man got shot,’” he told the podcast’s conservative host, Patrick Bet-David. “I was there, and the song was played.”
In a post on Monday on X, Joseph D. McBride, a lawyer for the Tates, said the brothers rejected hate.
“If the club is looking for someone to blame, it should start by looking in the mirror,” Mr. McBride wrote. “To be clear, Andrew Tate and Tristan Tate condemn antisemitism and any glorification of Adolf Hitler. Free speech is not a license for hate.”
Still, a video from inside the bus showed Tristan Tate bopping to the song and pointing his finger. At the club, Andrew Tate flashed a smile when the camera panned to him as the music played.
In 2024, Mr. Tate prompted criticism from Jewish groups when, writing about the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and other previous conflicts, he wrote on X, “Do you think they lied about ww2?”
Mr. Tate drew further scrutiny for comments he made in a video defending Elon Musk, who repeatedly gestured with his arm while speaking at an inaugural event last year for President Trump. Some observers said Mr. Musk’s salute resembled that used in Nazi Germany and fascist Italy.
“You know, I’m kind of thinking we should bring the Nazi salute back,” Mr. Tate said in the video, mimicking the salute.
Mr. Fuentes, a Holocaust denier who had dinner with Mr. Trump in 2022 at Mar-a-Lago, the president’s private estate and club in Palm Beach, dismissed the criticism in a social media post on Monday and used a racial slur.
Mr. Gaines, a far-right men’s rights influencer who appeared to use the Nazi salute at the club and on the bus, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
The other people in the video also did not respond to messages on Tuesday. Some of them have faced bans from YouTube and Twitch for spreading misinformation and comments deemed as antisemitic.
Mr. Tate and his brother, Tristan, swaggering influencers in the manosphere, had been under criminal investigation in Romania since 2022, accused of coercing women into pornography. Andrew Tate was also accused of rape and of having sex with and beating a 15-year-old.
The brothers, American and British citizens, were barred from leaving Romania while prosecutors built their case.
But Romanian authorities lifted the travel restrictions in early 2025, placating the Trump administration.
Neil Vigdor covers breaking news for The Times, with a focus on politics.
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