Matt The Welder posted porn of himself online, now he’s threatening legal action against people calling him out

A candidate for Agriculture Commissioner published pornographic images of himself online. Now, he’s threatening legal action against political enemies who are emailing screenshots of it.

Matt The Welder, whose legal name is Matthew Taylor, said he took the images more than 10 years ago. But he says he never, as critics have alleged, profited from the photo or pursued a career in the adult entertainment industry.

“I don’t even think there was even an income,” he said. “I think it was a one-time thing. That’s why when they’re calling me a porn star and they’re insinuating I’ve made money from that. I’m like, I’ve never made money from that. What are you talking about?”

The issue has followed the campaign since last year when the website PopulistSentinel.com posted about the “humiliation porn video.” The article was written by Shane Trejo, a journalist with ties to political consultant Roger Stone.

The issue gained more attention last week after the Republican Party of Florida endorsed current Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson. Supporters of Matt The Welder blasted party officials in emails for showing a bias for the incumbent.

Jennings DePriest, a political consultant and Manatee County GOP State Committeeman, responded by sharing a digitally censored — but still graphic — screenshot of the pornographic image. It appears to show the younger Taylor masturbating his exposed penis.

“Are you talking about the Matt The Welder who admitted to making and posting pornographic videos of himself?” DePriest wrote.

Matt The Welder has criticized the distribution of the image online with no concern about who may see the pictures, and not simply out of concern for himself. He said many of his supporters are young people involved in Turning Point USA chapters across Florida. He said the image was sent in at least one instance to a 17-year-old.

“There was no way for them to have checked or verified the age of whoever they sent them to,” Matt The Welder said.

But Alex Andrade, an attorney for DePriest, said that was an “outlandish complaint.”

“The purpose of this correspondence is to give you comfort that Mr. DePriest did not send any of your adult film content to minors, nor did he send any of your adult film content to anyone else. In fact, Mr. DePriest has not shared any naked photos of anyone, let alone the naked images of yourself that you self-published online,” Andrade wrote in a letter.

“Mr. DePriest shared appropriately censored images of what appear to be pornography that you self-published for your own personal gratification. The title of the pornography that you self-published appears to be ‘Femdom wife (asked) me to use a toy on camera.’ Based upon information provided by Mr. DePriest, it appears that you distributed the pornographic content of yourself widely, on websites such as Pornhub, Analibiza and Masterfap.”

Of note, the shared image appears under a screenshot of an apparent search engine caption appearing to link to a Pornhub channel of “Matt The Welder Porn Videos.”

But Matt The Welder said he never used that current political moniker until years after the image was taken and recorded. He also never published the article to Pornhub, a website that won’t allow Florida IP addresses to log on in protest of a 2025 law. A search of the website conducted in Washington, D.C., could not find a channel with that name.

Andrade, for his part, said he has not searched online for the original image, nor will he, regardless of how much any client paid him. But Matt The Welder said allegations about the image’s origins are as dishonest as the political attacks against him.

“They are not on Pornhub,” Matt The Welder said. “It is all part of a smear campaign.”

For his part, Matt The Welder does not believe voters will have a problem with images taken so far in the past.

“While we have all made mistakes in life and they want to focus on past mistakes, the Republican Party of Florida is full of current mistakes that they have made,” he said. He believes Simpson, who he calls a “real estate developer that identifies as a chicken farmer,” is behind an online campaign to hurt his character.

___

Ed. Note: Florida Politics is declining to publish the pornographic image.