At least three of President-elect Donald Trump‘s Cabinet nominees are facing or are tied to sexual allegations that could complicate, if not derail, their path to Senate confirmation.
Former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz was forced to withdraw his nomination to become Trump’s attorney general Thursday afternoon as it became increasingly clear his path to confirmation was on rocky terms. It marked the first political setback of the second Trump era.
“While the momentum was strong, it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition,” Gaetz wrote on X.
Attention will inevitably turn to Pete Hegseth, the veteran and Fox News host Trump tapped as defense secretary. Hegseth is also under fire as details of a sexual assault allegation have leaked out to the press. With Gaetz’s withdrawal, Hegseth’s nomination could also fall through if not properly contained.
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The Gaetz allegations are unique compared to Hegseth’s dilemmas and those of the other two Cabinet nominees, who are dealing with similar circumstances.
The Department of Justice investigated sex trafficking allegations against Gaetz for three years but did not bring charges against him. However, a separate House Ethics Committee report was likely to have made its way into the hands of the press with leaks underway.
Less than an hour before Gaetz ended his quest for attorney general, CNN reported on a woman who testified to the Ethics Committee about having sex with Gaetz twice in 2017 when she was 17 years old.
A well-known firebrand, Gaetz was also widely disliked by fellow congressional lawmakers. Several of them began trumpeting his withdrawal as soon as the news spread.
“I’m not going to dance on his grave, but I was the first one to call it,” said Rep. Max Miller (R-OH).
“As I said repeatedly last week, Matt Gaetz is never, ever becoming Attorney General. Like ever,” said Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA).
A GOP strategist who requested anonymity to speak freely said, before Gaetz’s withdrawal was announced, “It would be a major blow to Trump if Gaetz doesn’t get confirmed.”
However, other strategists were less surprised.
“Every president loses a Cabinet nominee to the process. Sometimes it’s legitimate, and other times it’s just politics,” said GOP strategist Dennis Lennox. “With Gaetz out of the way now, the question is, does everyone else move through? One imagines a deal where Republican senators agreed not to block R.F.K. Jr. or Tulsi Gabbard in exchange for Trump dumping Gaetz.”
Hegseth has support from Trump’s staunchest allies, including Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), who called him “a well-qualified nominee,” and Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN), who said he would confirm his nomination.
Trump will likely pressure Republican senators to quickly confirm Hegseth as well as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of Health and Human Services, Linda McMahon as education secretary, and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard as national intelligence director.
However, a police report released by the Monterey City Attorney’s Office in California included details of Hegseth blocking the woman who accused him of sexual assault from leaving the hotel where the encounter took place in 2017, taking her cellphone and then sexually assaulting the woman.
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Hegseth’s lawyer admitted the woman was paid through a nondisclosure agreement but also said the encounter was consensual.
“The matter was fully investigated, and I was completely cleared,” Hegseth told reporters while visiting Capitol Hill this week. He has never been charged over the incident.
Some Republican senators were already reticent on Hegseth’s nomination before the police report, and Gaetz’s news could cause more cautious or centrist lawmakers not to vote in support of the defense secretary nominee.
Kennedy was embroiled in a scandal this September when former New York magazine writer Olivia Nuzzi was revealed to have established an inappropriate relationship with him in the aftermath of a magazine profile of the former presidential candidate. Kennedy was married to his current wife, Cheryl Hines, when this personal relationship allegedly occurred. (Nuzzi was engaged to Politico journalist Ryan Lizza, but the couple split up, and Nuzzi parted ways with New York magazine.)
In October, three women emerged with claims that they had engaged in an affair with Kennedy over the past year. Kennedy was also previously accused of groping a former babysitter to his children and later apologized to the woman.
Linda McMahon, former WWE CEO, and her husband, Vince McMahon, were sued by five former Ring Boys for intentionally enabling the sexual abuse of children by a WWE employee.
According to the lawsuit, ring crew chief Melvin Phillips Jr. hired underaged boys to help set up WWE events. The boys were “groomed, exploited, and sexually abused,” with allegations dating back to the 1980s. Linda McMahon has denied wrongdoing. The five John Does who filed the lawsuit said they were 13 to 15 years old when they were recruited.
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), a veteran, member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and survivor of sexual assault, told the Washington Examiner the allegations against several Trump nominees are “concerning, but I’ll be visiting with them face to face.”
The Trump campaign also touted in an email Thursday Ernst’s previous praise of Hegseth last week.
“I think he is going to be a very strong secretary of defense,” said the Iowa senator.
Former Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel told CNN’s Inside Politics that the Senate confirmation process must play out.
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“They haven’t been convicted of any of these things,” McDaniel told CNN’s Dana Bash after Gaetz’s withdrawal was announced. “I think it’s important for the senators to take this job very seriously, also to give good advice to the president and to say, you need to go into these picks with eyes wide open and understand what damage they may do and what baggage they bring to this administration.”
However, it’s unclear to what extent this will affect voters who reelected Trump to the White House after he was found liable for sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carroll in May 2023 and accused of sexual assault by more than 15 women.
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“I have heard without exaggeration a dozen times or so in the last week questioning the veracity of many of these charges, both leveled against Matt Gaetz and others and wondering if this is just a quote, Deep State end quote, trying to thwart President Trump’s presidency from the beginning,” said national Republican strategist Brian Seitchik.
“Sadly, I think there’s evidence that a lot of voters don’t care. Otherwise, Trump wouldn’t have won the election,” said Democratic strategist Brad Bannon.
Cami Mondeaux contributed to this report.