If you were in Cedar Park looking for somewhere to exercise, you might wander into a place called Gracie Humaitá.
It’s a Brazilian jiu-jitsu school run by a man named Tim Kennedy.
Over the course of his life, Kennedy has fought as a professional fighter in the UFC, served as Green Beret in the U.S Army, been a New York Times bestselling author and worked as a commentator on Fox News and Newsmax.
Kennedy has millions of followers on social media and a résumé that’s so long and prestigious that, to some, it’s almost unbelievable.
That doubt is the center of a new cover story in Texas Monthly by Michael Sierra-Arévalo. He joined Texas Standard to discuss his reporting. Listen to the interview above or read the transcript below.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: What brought Tim Kennedy to your attention?
Michael Sierra-Arévalo: I met Tim Kennedy because I became involved in one of the activities that he is influential in. And that was, for me, Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
I began training in 2019, and around that same time, I was also focused on some of my prior work on policing and individuals that provided training to policing. And it turns out that Tim sits at the intersection of those two domains.
By that point you had thought that maybe this would be, what, a good character to lean into for a story? Tell me a little bit about that. I mean, there are a lot of jiu-jitsu trainers around Texas.
Sure, I mean, and for listeners, if they’re not aware, Austin has become home to some of the best grapplers on the planet. And so, point taken, it could have been about any number of schools, but Tim is arguably one of the most high-profile veterans in the country, and all of that just on its face makes him a very interesting person to understand.
You point out some discrepancies in Tim Kennedy’s military record. Could you say more about those discrepancies?
The piece goes into some detail about reporting that’s been done actually by a series of former soldiers, retired soldiers and YouTubers. It begins with some things that are not unlike his claims to have been the honor graduate of his police academy class, which I found out to not be true.
The most notable embellishment that has brought Tim into the public eye are a series of articles and then most importantly in 2017 a podcast interview in which he claims to have received a Bronze Star medal for valor. Now that may not mean a lot to most readers, but a Bronze Star medal is very different from a Bronze Star medal with valor or with “V device” that usually refers to an act of bravery under enemy fire.
It turns out that despite denying having made that claim for several months, once this audio resurfaced, it became clear that Tim had in fact made that claim and he does not in fact have that medal.
Well, so, in fact, when you hear that, some of those details from the résumé – that he appears on Fox News and Newsmax, that he’s written a bestselling book – is that squared with the facts that you found on the ground?
100%. There is something that’s important to get very clear, which is that regardless of the inaccuracies that I document in the piece, there is no world where you can reasonably say that Tim Kennedy doesn’t have an impressive résumé on the merits.
He is a Green Beret. He is former UFC and Strikeforce fighter. He has founded and run multiple businesses. All of those things are true. But it turns out that there are also a variety of things that Tim has claimed over the years that do not stand up to scrutiny.
That’s quite a set of accomplishments unto itself. I mean, some might say, why go out and add more to what’s already a pretty impressive résumé? But I’m sort of wondering, are his accomplishments in any way sort of undermined by these things that he appears to have added on to his story?
Good question. And I think it’s something that continually came up when I spoke with various sources.
And one of the sources, a former teammate of Kennedy’s during our interview, you know, in some ways he was almost mourning. His reflection was, “man, like you’re a Green Beret UFC fighter. The truth was good enough, man. Why, why do this?”
And at least in the eyes of this particular source, this does undermine Kennedy’s credibility. Because I think you’re right, if you look at the headlines — Green Beret, UFC fighter, entrepreneur, New York Times bestselling author — all of those things are true. But I think that what we’re coming to confront at this point is that the ends don’t justify the means. And I think that’s where the public is at this point: What can they believe?
You know, in the broader scheme of things, it has not become unusual for people to embellish – or perhaps misremember, if one wanted to be charitable – but Tim Kennedy is on the cover of Texas Monthly. Why? It seems almost as if you’re making a larger point and it’s not just about Tim Kennedy.
Well, I will stipulate that Tim himself is not on the cover. As far as I know, he didn’t sit for photographs for the cover, but his name is certainly there.
But there is a broader phenomenon, and I believe I describe it as something to the effect of shamelessness has assumed a moral value once reserved for bravery. I think that we currently exist in a media space, in a political space, where you say things that get attention, facts be damned. And you know what, if you get called out for it, there’s actually not a whole lot of value in correcting the record. Instead, there’s actual value.
Some people view it as you standing up to experts that shouldn’t be minded, standing up to corrupt authority, if you just double down and dig in your heels. And I think that this has been deeply caustic to our political environment, and frankly, it undermines good governance.
Let’s talk about the political environment for just a moment. In the story you write that more recently Kennedy’s become a presence in the Trump White House. How so?
So when I first began thinking about this story, this would have been almost a year ago, I had taken note that Tim had, for example, been at the White House for the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. And that, as far as I knew at the time, was the extent of his relationships either to Washington or to the White House.
At the end of 2024, particularly in the lead up to the most recent election, Tim became very active on social media, endorsing a variety of political candidates — namely Peter Hegseth, currently the secretary of defense, Tulsi Gabbard, currently the director of national intelligence, Kash Patel, currently the director of the FBI, and some other folks as well.
And since then, he’s been cited multiple times, not just on the White House grounds along with other influencers, but actually in the Oval Office with President Trump himself.
