President-elect Donald Trump‘s early Cabinet appointments have ranged from the obvious (brilliant House Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY) as ambassador to the United Nations) to the inspired (Fox News’s Pete Hegseth as defense secretary) to the aggravating (Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD) as homeland security secretary). But the former and future president’s announcement that he is nominating Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) as attorney general is Trump’s first pick that obviously, and intentionally, is dead on arrival.
Although Trump will reenter the White House with Republican control of both chambers of Congress, the Senate’s four-seat margin of control, with Vice President-elect J.D. Vance comprising the swing vote for Trump, includes at least two vulnerable Republicans up for dicey reelections in 2026: Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) of the ultra-liberal Maine and Thom Tillis (R-NC) of the swing state of North Carolina. The margin also includes Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), who both brand themselves as more heterodox or independent Republicans.
Perhaps Trump just wants Gaetz as the Justice Department’s top dog, but just as likely are the odds that he is intentionally making the Florida firebrand his fall guy. As a sacrificial lamb, Gaetz’s nomination may be very well intended to fail to give the centrist wing of the party cover when political opponents try to accuse them of rubber-stamping all of Trump’s appointments.
Gaetz is indeed an attorney, technically. After graduating from the respectably ranked William & Mary Law School in 2007, he was admitted to the Florida Bar the following year and worked as a junior associate for a local law office now called AnchorsGordon. That same year, he was arrested on charges of driving under the influence. Less than a year later, Gaetz, whose father was then serving in the Florida state Senate, announced his bid for the state House of Representatives. Gaetz forayed six years in the Florida House into another eight years in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he’s served as an attack dog, Trump ally, and television firebrand. In this time, he’s also been publicly lambasted by the Florida Bar, had his law license revoked and then reinstated, been the subject of a since-shuttered Justice Department investigation into unproven sex trafficking allegations, and is still under a House Ethics investigation into such alleged sexual misconduct and illegal drug use.
All in all, Gaetz has spent a grand total of two years practicing law, during which he didn’t handle criminal cases, let alone prosecute one. Needless to say, the response among Republicans on the Hill has included audible laughter, gasps, and disbelief.
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Perhaps Trump really wants to put a legal neophyte in charge of federal law enforcement, but consider what exactly happened when Trump announced the pick. Backlash to Trump’s formal nominations of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) for secretary of state and former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence was immediately silenced despite the president-elect announcing them just before. Pearl-clutching from yesterday over Hegseth and Noem was also forgotten as though the fulmination had never happened.
In other words, the Gaetz nomination might be so outlandish and unbelievable because it is supposed to be. Gaetz might be the lightning rod designed to absorb all the outrage Democrats and their consiglieres in the media were going to exude regardless, a fall guy to give the crucial swing votes in the Senate political cover come 2026, and a reminder to the public that Trump will never stop surprising us.