Donald Trump sent shockwaves through the Republican party on Wednesday night with his announcement that he'll nominate Matt Gaetz as his Attorney General in a bold test of his unchecked power.
GOP Senators were stunned by the news the MAGA firebrand Florida Congressman was picked for one of the most senior roles in Trump's second administration in a sign they could try and block his confirmation.
Gaetz, 42, is under the subject of an ethics investigation over claims of sexual misconduct, bribery and drug use - which he denies - and was also the focus of unsubstantiated sex trafficking claims involving a 17-year-old girl.
Trump's nomination of Gaetz sets up an immediate loyalty test days after the president-elect sent a signal to Senate leaders by demanding power to make 'recess appointments' on his own when Congress is out of town.
It means he would be able to appoint members of his Cabinet without the 50 votes needed in the Senate.
Critics are calling the move to make Gatez Attorney General a 'cataclysmic' event that puts Trump's enemies in the firing line of the nation's top law enforcement officer.
It is also a new allegiance test for Senate Republicans, who elected Sen. John Thune as party leader on Wednesday over the MAGA-aligned Sen. Rick Scott, even after almost all of them got behind Trump's presidential run.
Even if Gaetz were to see his nomination falter, the clash could provide cover for other controversial Trump nominees.
Trump announced his decision just minutes after issuing a statement saying he will nominate Tulsi Gabbard, who infuriated critics with claims about 'biolabs' in Ukraine, to be Director of National Intelligence. He has also chosen Fox News host Pete Hegseth to run the sprawling Defense Department.
Republicans who had the Gaetz nomination thrown in their lap – apparently without prior consultation – revealed their shock both through their words and their silence.
Longtime Sen. Charles Grassley, the 91-year-old Iowa Republican, was so ‘exasperated’ by questions that stopped speaking to reporters and stood stone-faced for 30 seconds, Punchbowl reported.
Grassley helped push through the 2017 Trump tax cuts and has a longtime interest in congressional oversight, and has been a key figure along with outgoing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in getting Trump priorities through.
Another Senator, John Cornyn of Texas, looked like he ‘tasted something strange’ upon hearing the news, the Hill reported, just hours after he lost a race to be Senate leader.
Trump’s nominations, which sent a signal of unbridled control over the party, came after Senate Republicans rejected MAGA-friendly Sen. Rick Scott of Florida for Republican leader.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), said she was 'shocked' by the announcement, the Huffington Post reported. Collins was among the seven Republicans who voted to impeach Trump after January 6.
Republicans are set to control the Senate 53 to 47. Despite the protestations, it is not yet clear they would or could summon the will to resist Trump on such a crucial appointment so obviously important to the president-elect.
Only just weighing in was Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), who in the past made a highly incriminating statement about Gaetz.
'We had all seen the videos he was showing on the House floor … of the girls that he had slept with. He’d brag about how he would crush ED medicine and chase it with an energy drink so he could go all night,' the former House member said in October 2023. Gaetz called it 'a lie.'
Mullin said on CNN following news of the nomination: 'Matt Gaetz and I, there's no question we've had our differences. They've been very public about it. I completely trust president Trump's decision-making on this one. There's a lot of questions that will be out there. He has to answer those questions. And hopefully, he's able to answer the questions right. If he can, then we'll go through confirmation process.'
That appeared to leave open the possibility that he would support him.
Republicans including Trump's pick to be Secretary of State Marco Rubio have said that he deserves to have his cabinet in place.
Acting as an enforcer, Trump ultra-loyalist Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) issued a televised threat to any Republican 'swamp creature' who votes against the controversial nomination.
'He deserves the team around him that he wants,' the senator told Fox business. 'It's not us to determine that. We've got 53 votes in the Senate. We can confirm with 51. I've already seen where a couple says we're not voting for him. Wait a minute. You are not the United States of America. You have one vote in the U.S. Senate, you did not get elected president ... If you want to get in the way, fine, but we're gonna try to get you out of the Senate, too, if you try to do that.'
Thanks to a rules change, Republicans can push through any cabinet nomination on a simple majority vote, just as they can confirm Trump's judicial nominations.
The late Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid pushed through the 'nuclear option' to end the filibuster for nominations back in 2013, when Republicans were stalling Barack Obama's nominees.
One campaign operative told DailyMail.com: 'In every new administration it seems that there's always at least one nominee that has to drop out because they don't have the votes in the Senate, and now it appears we won't have to guess anymore who fills that role is this time.'
There has already been commentary that Trump's push on recess appointments signalled that his second term would be more radical than the first. One analyst, attorney Edward Whelan, called it a 'terrible anti-constitutional scheme' by overriding the 'advice and consent' of the Senate, a key check on executive power.
Over in the House, where Gaetz has friends as well as enemies but where there is no role in the confirmation process, there were early predictions of doom for the nomination.
Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) hinted at the stakes in a remark to Politico. 'Are you s***in' me, that you just asked that question? No!' he asked if Gatz had the experience and character to be AG. 'But hell, you’ll print that and now I’m going to be investigated,' he added.
Rep. Max Miller, a former Trump aide, told Axios, 'Gaetz has a better shot at having dinner with Queen Elizabeth II than being confirmed by the Senate.'
Democratic senators who campaigned calling Trump a threat to democracy went into overdrive.
''He (Gaetz) has openly called for the abolition of law enforcement agencies if they don't get in line with conservative political priorities,' Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) told CNN, calling it a 'red alert moment for American democracy.'
'Matt Gaetz is being nominated for one reason and one reason only. He will implement Donald Trump's transition of the department of justice from an agency that stands up for all of us to an agency that is simply an arm of the white house designed to persecute and prosecute trump's political enemies.
'Matt Gaetz is being nominated because he will be and is today a political agent of Donald Trump. The ramifications of this pick, this particular pick, are stunning and potentially cataclysmic for American democracy. I hope that some senate Republicans will see that,' he added.
The gambit also came on a day Trump joked about running for a third term, which is barred by the 22nd Amendment.
Despite the fury, Trump expressed certainty about the nomination when he made it. 'Matt will end Weaponized Government, protect our Borders, dismantle Criminal Organizations and restore Americans´ badly-shattered Faith and Confidence in the Justice Department,' Trump wrote.
'On the House Judiciary Committee, which performs oversight of DOJ, Matt played a key role in defeating the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, and exposing alarming and systemic Government Corruption and Weaponization,' Trump said.
The DOJ under President Biden ended its sex trafficking probe of Gaetz without bringing charges.
