Behind the Curtain: Why Trump picked Gaetz
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Rep. Matt Gaetz (right) and incoming White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles arrive at Joint Base Andrews on President-elect Trump's plane Wednesday. Photo: Brian Snyder/Reuters
President-elect Trump picked Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) for attorney general for one, big, telling reason: Gaetz will proudly do the dirty work on controversial legal topics that others won't.
Why it matters: Get used to this. It's your future foretold: On some topics, Trump wants to seem reasonable. On others — like anything related to his suspicion of a hostile "deep state" — he demands his own personal, controllable wrecking ball.
Gaetz, 42, is a wrecking ball, head to toe. Oh, and arguably the most despised one among elected Republicans. But Trump doesn't care, advisers say.
- Republicans privately question whether Gaetz will be confirmed by the Senate. But that might not keep him from being attorney general, the most powerful law enforcer in the land.
Behind the scenes: A powerful MAGA insider who talks often to Trump told us the reason he picked Gaetz is simple: "He likes him."
- Trump wants to "stop s--t like this," the insider said, texting a news clip reporting the FBI early Wednesday raided the SoHo apartment of Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan, seizing his phone and electronics. (Details from Dan Primack.)
- Gaetz's selection set off outrage among lawmakers in both parties. But the insider predicted that "if he can make it to January, Gaetz will be confirmed."
The big picture: Countless Republicans trashed Gaetz before and after his shocking nomination. His House colleagues' parting gift: a quick leak to Punchbowl that Gaetz was about to get hit with a damning House Ethics Committee report. The subject of the report: illegal drug use and sexual misconduct.
- Gaetz resigned his Florida seat Wednesday, just before the Ethics Committee was set to hold a pivotal meeting on the Gaetz investigation. Gaetz's resignation ends the wide-ranging probe, Axios' Andrew Solender reports.
Gaetz convinced Trump that he's simply a victim of the same "deep state" that went after him. That's Trump's love language.
- "For two years," the N.Y. Times reports, "the Justice Department looked into allegations that he had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl and possibly violated federal sex trafficking laws. The department closed its investigation last year without filing any charges against Mr. Gaetz."
Marc Caputo, a well-wired Trump reporter for The Bulwark, captured the Trump view perfectly with this quote from an adviser familiar with the transition process:
- "Everyone else looked at AG as if they were applying for a judicial appointment. They talked about their vaunted legal theories and constitutional bullshit. Gaetz was the only one who said: 'Yeah, I'll go over there and start cuttin' f---in' heads.'"
Reality check: Cuttin' heads isn't the actual job of the AG — who by precedent (not law) operates quite independently from the president. The job is to enforce laws, even on presidents and Cabinet officials.
Republicans hope Gaetz is simply a sacrificial sucker, put up to be rejected so Trump can smuggle through a controversial but more acceptable alternative. Perhaps. But Gaetz is a Trump favorite and Mar-a-Lago regular.
- Trump has assurances from Senate Republican leaders that he can use a controversial workaround, recess appointments, to smuggle in unpopular picks, at least for a few years.
Between the lines: Trump's fear, anger and disdain for the "deep state" run as deep as any governing emotion he holds. This helps explain why two other defiant picks — Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence and Fox News' Pete Hesgeth for SecDef — run pillars of government Trump has big issues with.
- This'll be one of the most important plots of the Trump presidency.
Final word: Republicans have a taste of what's to come. Trump picked a man many of them hate, without giving his governing partners a courtesy heads-up — and did it on a day that was supposed to be a celebration of their new congressional leaders.
- And right after meeting President Biden in the Oval Office.
Go deeper: Trump nominations revive his "island of misfit toys," by Zachary Basu and Sophia Cai.
