| Brandon Tatum | |
| Other Names: | The Officer Tatum |
| Birth Name: | Brandon Orlando Tatum |
| Birth Date: | 22 April 1987 |
| Birth Place: | Fort Worth, Texas, U.S. |
| Education: | University of Arizona (BA) |
| Party: | Republican |
| Movement: | Black conservative movement |
| Spouse: | Corinne Tatum |
| Children: | 2 |
Brandon Orlando Tatum (born April 22, 1987), also known as The Officer Tatum, is an American conservative political commentator, author, radio personality, former police officer, and former college football player.
Born in Fort Worth, Texas, Tatum was an All-American football player in high school.[1] His father, Bobby Tatum, was a captain in the Fort Worth Fire Department.[1] His great uncle, Jack Tatum, was an Ohio State All-American, NFL All-Pro, and a Super Bowl champion with the Oakland Raiders [1] Tatum was featured in the US-Army All-American Game, which showcases the top 78 high school football players in the nation.[1] Tatum committed to playing on a full athletic scholarship from the University of Arizona in 2004. Tatum played at Arizona for five years and entered the NFL Draft in 2010.[2]
After going undrafted in the NFL Draft, Tatum became a police officer in Tucson, Arizona. He rose to prominence in early 2016 for a viral video which featured him at a campaign rally for presidential candidate Donald Trump. Following the rally, he said in the video that he felt unsafe because of those who protested against the event.[3] He went viral a second time in September 2017 for a video in which he expressed his opposition to players "taking the knee" during the national anthem at NFL football games.[4]
See also: Black conservatism in the United States.
Tatum resigned from the Tucson Police Department in October 2017 to join Liftable Media — a conservative content producer that owns and operates The Western Journal and The Conservative Tribune. He then served as director of urban engagement for the conservative action group Turning Point USA, before founding his own media company in late 2019.[5]
In November 2021, Bombardier Books published Tatum’s book, Beaten Black and Blue: Being a Black Cop in an America Under Siege, distributed by Simon & Schuster.[6]
In May 2022, Tatum began hosting a national talk radio program, The Officer Tatum Show, distributed by Salem Radio Network.[7]
Tatum runs a YouTube channel called "The Officer Tatum"[8] with over 2.31 million subscribers. As of May 2023, he has accumulated over 571 million total views.
Tatum has also appeared as a guest on Candace Owens's PragerU show The Candace Owens Show as well as her The Daily Wire political podcast Candace as a panelist.
Along with Owens,[9] Tatum founded Blexit,[10] [11] an organization meant to persuade the black American population to leave the Democratic Party and re-register as Republicans. The name Blexit is a portmanteau, a combination of the words "black" and "exit".