How a Trump rally turned this former cop into a conservative Youtube star

Fox News

5 hours ago

Brandon Tatum's journey to become one of the most popular conservative influencers was a unique one that began at an Arizona Trump rally during the 2016 election.
Known as "The Officer Tatum" on social media, Tatum has millions of followers and subscribers across all platforms where he shares his opinions and reactions to political issues, the media, and hot cultural issues. Tatum spoke with Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview about how he got there.
Tatum's journey began as a college football player at the University of Arizona in Tuscon. However, he wasn't selected in the NFL draft, so he set his career sights elsewhere with his college degree, and explored various career opportunities in Tucson.
As Tatum was searching, he needed to find something to be able to provide for his family. He applied to join the police department and got a response.
Tatum did a ride-along with Officer Sean Payne, who inspired him to pursue a career in law enforcement.
"He's since retired, but you know he changed my life… doing that ride along with him inspired me to be a police officer. And I always say this when I speak about it is for the first time in my life, I saw a hero in Sean Payne and I said, you know, I want to be a hero like him," Tatum said.
Tatum said he wanted to serve his community and described his career as a police officer as "incredible."
"I was a SWAT operator. I was a field training officer, which is, I trained new officers," he said. "I was crisis intervention trained, which means I negotiated and helped people in crisis, people who are trying to commit suicide, you name it."
"I was there to help," he added.
It was a full-circle moment for Tatum, who previously didn't have a good experience with the police growing up.
"I didn't really like police officers from the community I grew up in," he said. "I actually got arrested when I was eight years old for smoking marijuana in a vacant house. So my first experiences with police officers were of me going to jail and not necessarily experiencing police officers that were in the community to help."
And then, Tatum had a political awakening.
"When I first saw those taxes come out of my paycheck, I realized that I needed to start voting and being politically active," Tatum said.
He realized his views aligned more with the Republican Party.
"Growing up being Black in America, by default, most of us are Democrat, so it really opened my eyes to saying, you know what, I think I align with the Republican Party more. I'm a conservative, I love God. I mean, all the things that I think most people would identify, associated with conservatism or Republicans," Tatum shared.
The 2016 election changed Tatum's life in a big way.
A video Tatum posted describing his experience at a Tucson Trump rally went viral overnight. He then made an appearance on "Fox & Friends" to describe posting the video and his support for the future president.
"I think Donald Trump is a good candidate and I think that he has the tangibles, and he has the ability to make this country great again," Tatum told "Fox & Friends" in March 2016.
Following that appearance, he realized the importance of making his voice heard.
"I have a voice. I need to really speak out about these things that I see that are absolutely ridiculous," Tatum said.
Since then, Tatum has been vocal online about various issues over the last decade, including Colin Kaepernick's NFL protests and the 2020 Black Lives Matter riots.