Three of President Donald Trump’s high-profile nominees to join his Cabinet have faced serious allegations of sexual impropriety, complicating the calculation for Republican senators who are weighing all their professional qualifications as they decide whether to go with their party leader to take on important government posts.
His pick for attorney general, former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., is accused of having sex with a 17-year-old and paying two other women for sex. Trump’s pick for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, was accused of sexual assault. And his nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., was accused this summer of groping a former babysitter.
Gaetz and Hegseth have denied the allegations. Kennedy responded to the allegations against him last summer, saying, “I said in my announcement speech that I have so many skeletons in my closet that if they could all vote, I could run for king of the world.” NBC News reported that he apologized to the woman via text messages this year.
Trump himself has faced several allegations of sexual misconduct, which he has denied, although he was found liable for sexual abuse in a civil lawsuit last year over an alleged incident from the 1990s that he also denies. Now that he has become president again, he is spending early political capital on confirming appointments who have themselves faced allegations of sexual misconduct.
“I think it’s smart politics for the president to take on Congress. He is a change agent that people have been sent to disrupt, and there are few institutions that people hate more than Congress. But he undermines that message when he wants to argue about Matt Gaetz,” said Marc Short, an NBC News contributor and chief of staff to former Vice President Mike Pence.
“Over the decades we’ve gone from not disclosing nanny payments as disqualifying to now, I just think the people around the president know he wants to see them fight through bad news cycles,” Short added.
The accusations against Trump’s choices
Gaetz’s years of controversies have returned to the spotlight as he is set for a Cabinet post. While one of Gaetz’s former associates pleaded guilty to charges including sex trafficking of a minor, the Justice Department ended its sex trafficking investigation against Gaetz, who resigned from Congress after Trump singled him out and charged him with no crime. Meanwhile, a House Ethics Committee investigation was underway before he resigned.
Some details from that investigation have become public — on Monday, an attorney representing two women who testified before the Ethics Commission told NBC News that Gaetz paid them for sex on several occasions, including at a small invitation-only party in Florida was accessible. The lawyer also added that a woman saw Gaetz having sex with her 17-year-old boyfriend, but added that she believed Gaetz did not realize she was underage and that he ended their “sexual relationship” until she became a legal adult .
Hegseth has been accused of sexually assaulting a woman in 2017, an accusation he denied through an attorney who said the encounter was consensual and that the two had entered into a “civil confidential settlement agreement.” [even as Hegseth] maintains his innocence.”
NBC News did not independently review a memo that The Washington Post reported was sent to the Trump transition team by a friend of the prosecutor. Tim Parlatore, Hegseth’s attorney, confirmed it was related to the meeting.
And this year, Vanity Fair published an extensive profile of Kennedy, including a conversation with one of his family’s former nannies, who said he groped her. Asked about the accusation on a podcast this summer, Kennedy responded by brushing it aside and saying, “I’m not a church boy.”
Short pointed to the difficult political pressure Republican senators will face, especially ahead of Gaetz’s confirmation vote. While some Republican senators agree they want to see the House Ethics Committee report on Gaetz, none have ruled out voting for him.
Republican senators up for re-election in 2026 “are put in a very difficult situation because if they oppose Trump’s nominee, the concern is that Trump will help recruit a primary opponent. But if they back someone like Matt Gaetz, you’re almost guaranteeing a tougher general election. You’re in a catch-22,” Short said.
As Trump’s picks come under scrutiny, several administration hopefuls have had to step aside in recent decades over allegations that they hired undocumented domestic workers — including some during the administrations of Bill Clinton and George HW Bush, though nominees during President Barack Obama’s term and Trump’s first term were. , in some cases, can get through. Others have had problems with their finances, as well as accusations of personal or professional misconduct.
Trump’s previous picks haven’t been immune either.
In 2017, Andy Puzder, Trump’s nominee for secretary of labor, withdrew from his confirmation battle amid an investigation into his business record, concerns that he hired an undocumented domestic worker and the emergence of video in which his ex-wife accused him of domestic violence. Puzder said he was not aware that the employee was an undocumented immigrant, and a spokesperson told Politico at the time that his ex-wife’s comments were “retracted 30-year-old allegations.”
In 2018, Trump’s acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan withdrew from consideration to lead the Pentagon in a permanent capacity after The Post reported on domestic violence incidents involving members of his family. (Shanahan claimed the reporting painted “an incomplete and therefore misleading” picture of the incidents.)
Also that year, Dr. Ronny Jackson (then the White House physician who later became a member of Congress) withdrew his name to head the Department of Veterans Affairs amid accusations of professional impropriety. (Jackson called the allegations “completely false and fabricated.”)
And in late 2018, Trump made a direct appeal to young men to try to discredit a sexual abuse allegation against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, who denied the allegation. Kavanaugh was confirmed.
“It’s a very scary time for young men in America when you can be guilty of something you may not be guilty of,” Trump told reporters.
“You can be someone who has been perfect all your life, and someone can accuse you of something,” he said.
Trump stands by his choices
Now, Team Trump is backing its picks and resuming its efforts on Capitol Hill ahead of next year’s confirmation hearings.
A transition official told NBC News that when Trump initially called to inform Gaetz of his plan to nominate him as attorney general, Gaetz told Trump, “This whole thing is going to be an uphill battle.” The official added that Trump responded that it was a battle he wanted to fight and said Trump himself has made calls to GOP senators.
Addressing the potential difficulty of getting some of Trump’s controversial picks confirmed, another transition official said, “The president wants these nominees in his administration, and it’s our job to make that happen,” adding that while “we know this will be hard, we just won an unprecedented election” and that Trump “wants this done, and we will get it done.”
Trump briefly told reporters on Wednesday that he is not reconsidering Gaetz’s nomination. And Vice President-elect JD Vance visited Capitol Hill this week to arrange meetings for key Republican senators with Gaetz and Hegseth, a source familiar with the plans said.
Asked about the substance of the allegations against Gaetz, Hegseth and Kennedy and whether there are concerns that could complicate their confirmations, Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for the Trump-Vance transition and the new White House press secretary, said in a statement that Trump’s election was a “resounding mandate from the American people to change the status quo in Washington. That is why he has chosen brilliant and highly respected outsiders to serve in his government.”
“He will continue to stand with them as they battle all those who try to derail the MAGA agenda,” Leavitt added.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
