The Gaetz Flop Suggests That Trump Is Still His Own Worst Enemy
Observers proposed several explanations for President-elect Donald Trump’s flabbergasting nomination of former Florida congressman Matt Gaetz as attorney general, which ended last Thursday, eight days after it was announced. Those theories were superficially plausible but ultimately unsatisfying. The explanation that best fits the facts is that Trump tends to act on impulse without regard to foreseeable consequences. While that tendency is worrisome in a chief executive, it means that some of his most alarming plans for a second term may come to naught, frustrated by his own lack of foresight and strategic acumen.
By picking a widely disliked legislator with scant legal experience and skeletons that had been tumbling out of the closet for years, some journalists surmised Trump was prioritizing personal loyalty above all other concerns. According to this theory, Trump was determined to install a lackey at the top of the Justice Department so he could use its formidable resources to deliver on his threats to investigate, prosecute, and imprison his political enemies once he was back in power.
Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, Trump’s wealthiest and bounciest supporter, thought the choice was brilliant. “Matt Gaetz has 3 critical assets that are needed for the AG role: a big brain, a spine of steel and an axe to grind,” Musk wrote in an X post two days before Gaetz withdrew his name from consideration by the Senate, where enough Republicans had expressed skepticism or outright opposition to make his confirmation highly unlikely. “He is the Judge Dredd America needs to clean up a corrupt system and put powerful bad actors in prison. Gaetz will be our Hammer of Justice.”
According to two other takes on the nomination, Trump picked Gaetz precisely because of his well-known liabilities. In one version, Trump was daring Republican senators to defy his will, making his confirmation an early test of their obeisance. In another version of this theory, Trump knew that Gaetz probably would not be confirmed but was hoping the nomination would make his other controversial picks, including a Fox News host as secretary of defense and an anti-vaxxer as secretary of health and human services, seem decent by comparison. Or maybe it was all an elaborate scheme to ensure that whoever replaced Gaetz would be readily confirmed by relieved senators.
Gaetz’s 59-year-old replacement, Pam Bondi, certainly looks well-qualified compared to him. Bondi, who is 17 years older than Gaetz, earned a degree from Stetson University College of Law in 1990 and was admitted to Florida’s bar the following year. She worked as a prosecutor in Hillsborough County for more than 18 years before running for attorney general in 2010. She served two terms in that office, from 2011 to 2019, and later worked as a foreign lobbyist.
Gaetz, by contrast, is a 42-year-old graduate of William & Mary Law School who briefly worked for a law firm in Fort Walton Beach before entering state politics in 2010, two years after he was admitted to the Florida bar. The Tampa Bay Times identified seven cases that Gaetz tried as a private attorney. While that list may not be exhaustive, it gives you a sense of his experience.
Gaetz’s clients included Okaloosa County, two motorists cited for speeding, a restaurant disputing a worker’s compensation claim, an aircraft maintenance company that was sued for negligence, a party in a child custody dispute, and a plaintiff seeking to recover less than $15,000. Gaetz also racked up two wins a
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