Thread by @mtracey

Here's a conspiracy theory based exclusively on public US government records. In 2020, the State Department criticized Romania for failing to address "human trafficking" and placed it on a "Watch List." In doing so, the US hoped to "stimulate action and create partnerships"

A few months later one such "partnership" was launched, and the US single-handedly funded a new multifaceted Romanian state initiative to "strengthen" its law enforcement related to "human trafficking." The program encompassed directorates on Organized Crime as well as Terrorism

By early 2021 the State Department expressed satisfaction that Romania had adopted a sweeping National Action Plan to address each and every "recommendation" the US had made in its harshly critical 2020 report

Then by July 2022, Romania was pleased to announce that the US had "upgraded" its ranking and taken it off the "Watch List." Each and every "recommendation" the US made was approved for the new National Plan, including "increase the number of human trafficking convictions"

Andrew Tate is being prosecuted for "human trafficking" by Romania's Directorate for the Investigation of Organized Crime and Terrorism, whose "human trafficking" enforcement the US funds. The investigation was initiated by the US Embassy. I apologize for the conspiracy theory

Take a look at the "The Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000" (TVPA) which authorizes this particular US global pressure campaign in the name of combatting "human trafficking." Bush was really into waging a War on Trafficking in tandem with the War on Terror

Only problem was that "there weren't any victims," as the head of the Bush Administration's anti-trafficking program admitted

Bush decided to adopt the peculiar crime-fighting strategy of hiring a PR firm to "find" the elusive victims

This "victim-finding" approach is what the US now "recommends" for countries like Romania, which of course drops everything to adopt as swiftly as possible. No reason to think Romania being a key military satellite of the US contributes to their sense of great moral urgency here

Obviously I'm not asserting any conspiracy theory. That was facetious. But I am providing some relevant context to better understand this Andrew Tate story. Why has no media outlet bothered to mention that the US happens to be funding Romania's new "human trafficking" police unit