Donald Trump has announced his intention to appoint Matt Gaetz, a far-right Florida congressman known for inflaming tensions within the House Republican Conference, as attorney general.
Gaetz, a longtime Trump loyalist, gained attention last year after leading the successful charge to oust fellow Republican Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House of Representatives. Gaetz and seven other House Republicans joined Democrats in voting to impeach McCarthy last October, setting off a weeks-long battle for a new speaker.
Related: Trump chooses far-right Congressman Matt Gaetz as attorney general
McCarthy held Gaetz personally responsible for his removal and even funded an unsuccessful primary challenge against his former colleague. McCarthy suggested that Gaetz pushed for his ouster because of an ethics committee investigation into allegations that Gaetz paid for and had sexual relations with an underage woman.
In February 2023, the Justice Department declined to file sex trafficking charges against Gaetz, who has denied wrongdoing since the allegations first came to light.
Even before McCarthy’s removal, Gaetz had developed a reputation as a right-wing rabble-rouser who did not shy away from conflict with both Democrats and Republicans.
“Florida man. Built for battle,” reads Gaetz’s bio on X, formerly Twitter.
Gaetz followed his father into politics more than twenty years ago. After serving in the Florida Statehouse, Gaetz was elected in 2016 to represent a ruby-red portion of the Florida Panhandle.
Like Trump, to whom he is fiercely loyal, Gaetz is, according to his critics, more interested in sparring with political enemies than in the dry business of government. On Capitol Hill, he has repeatedly disrupted House proceedings, including once invading a secure facility where Democrats were holding a hearing.
In 2018, he was convicted of inviting a Holocaust denier to Trump’s State of the Union address. A year later, he hired a speechwriter who had been fired by the Trump White House after speaking at a conference that attracted white nationalists.
Months after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, Gaetz embarked on an “America First” tour with far-right Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, during which they amplified the former president’s false claims of fraud in the 2020 election.
After Republicans in the House of Representatives performed worse than expected in the 2022 midterm elections, Gaetz took advantage of his conference’s razor-thin majority to extract promises on rule changes from McCarthy, who had to endure fifteen rounds of voting before winning in became chairman in January 2023. Nine months later, Gaetz used these rule changes to force McCarthy from the speaker’s seat.
More recently, Gaetz served as an adviser to Trump as the former president successfully sought a second term. According to ABC News, Gaetz helped Trump prepare for his September debate against Kamala Harris by peppering him with questions about his potential vulnerabilities, including Trump’s multiple criminal charges and his changing position on abortion access.
As attorney general, Gaetz would be in a powerful position to prosecute Trump’s political enemies, as the president-elect has promised. Gaetz could also try to purge the Justice Department of many longtime associates after Trump spread baseless claims that the federal government was “weaponized” against him.
But before Gaetz can take on the role, he will need approval from the Senate, where he could face a chilly reception. With a 53-seat Republican majority in the Senate, Gaetz could still be confirmed, but some early warning signs appeared immediately after Trump’s announcement.
Susan Collins, a Republican senator from Maine, told reporters on Capitol Hill that she was “shocked” by the news.
“That shows why the advice and consent process [of Senate confirmation] is so important,” Collins said, according to Politico. “And I’m sure many questions will arise during his hearing.”
