Tom Sandoval is catching stray criticism from a “Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test” instructor who likened the reality star to convicted fraudster George Santos.
Jovon “Q” Quarles, 42, a former NAVY SEAL who has served on the Fox competition series’ directing staff since Season 2, delivered the comparison during an exclusive interview’s “Virtual Reali-Tea” podcast about the show’s fifth season premiere. Quarles, who spent 15 years as a SEAL and has been deployed multiple times, drew a direct line between Sandoval’s public posture after his 2023 cheating scandal and Santos’ refusal to accept responsibility for his federal crimes.
“He reminds me of Tom Sandoval, where, ‘Nothing I’ve done was wrong. Nothing I did was wrong,’ and then [they] point the finger at the other person and say that what [that person] did was wrong,” Quarles said. “They don’t hold themselves accountable.”
Sandoval, 42, appeared on the show’s second season in late 2023, months after his affair with Rachel “Raquel” Leviss became public, ending his nine-year relationship with Ariana Madix. The “Vanderpump Rules” alum’s defiant attitude during the fallout became a defining characteristic of that period, with fans and castmates alike criticizing his refusal to fully own his actions.
Quarles made clear that his awareness of Santos’ criminal history — which included embezzling campaign donor funds for personal luxuries like Botox and spa treatments, plus fabrications about his education, employment and heritage — shaped his approach to the disgraced former congressman. Santos was sentenced to more than seven years in federal prison but served only three months before President Donald Trump commuted his sentence and ordered his release.
“There was no bit of me that was going to be light with him at all,” Quarles said. “I wanted to make sure he understood what we deal with, as men and women in the Special Forces, and what it’s like.”
The directing staff member, who alongside three other former military operatives runs the rigorous course for celebrity and athlete contestants, said he took Santos’ record of “fraud” and “scandals” personally given the expectation that elected officials tell the “truth” and have the “backs” of military personnel.
“We’re supposed to trust you?” Quarles wondered. “And then you send us out here to go to war to die for stuff that you are lying about for the most part.”
He added that his personal stake in challenging Santos drove him to strip away the politician’s accustomed control. “I took it personally, so I really wanted to challenge him and really give him a taste of what it’s like to understand that, ‘Hey, you now don’t have any control.'”
Despite the stern approach, Quarles found genuine amusement in one of Santos’ physical struggles during the Season 5 premiere. The convicted fraudster repeatedly failed while attempting to pull himself from lake water onto a dock, flailing in a manner that the instructor found unexpectedly comical.
“Seeing Santos flop back in was like seeing a dead sea lion just kind of roll over and fall back [into] the water,” Quarles chuckled. “It was the funniest thing.”
Quarles also expressed hope that more politicians might attempt future seasons of the endurance competition, suggesting the format offers a unique accountability mechanism absent from traditional political life.
The fifth season of “Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test” airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on Fox, with episodes available to stream on Hulu the following day.