Trump dropped Gaetz after complaining about the high political cost of protecting him

Donald Trump was in the room with JD Vance, Stephen Miller and other top advisers after calling on senators to try to salvage Matt Gaetz’s sinking nomination.

He had no luck.

“I’m using my political capital,” the president-elect told insiders. He could only spend so much money, he explained.

Trump took the word from a lawyer who bluntly told him there was a cost to any continued effort to force the former member of Congress for Attorney General, amid allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct.

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“Sir, we’re going to vote for you,” Gaetz said, “but you’re spending a lot of money on politics.”

When Trump told Gaetz he didn’t have the votes, prompting him to withdraw, he quickly settled on Pam Bondi, a former Florida attorney general and former career prosecutor who had information that the embattled Gaetz didn’t have — and none of his responsibility. Gaetz, who is accused of sleeping with a 17-year-old girl, continues to deny any wrongdoing.

He officially withdrew 45 minutes after CNN told him it would report that he had three lovers – specifically, that there was another alleged incident involving Jane Doe, a woman who says she slept with Gaetz when she was 17, and an older woman.

Bondi has a history of partial loyalty to Trump, such as defending him in his first impeachment trial, and this year, he ran the legal arm of a pro-Trump firm and became its registered representative.

But here’s the difference, according to insiders: He’s not going to go in and blow up the Justice Department, as Gaetz wanted to do. He respects the law, say his colleagues in Florida. He even hired a Democrat who ran against him for AG, praising him. Yes, Bondi has talked about prosecuting “bad” prosecutors, but who can argue with that?

With Gaetz out, more scrutiny has shifted to the nomination of Pete Hegseth to run the Pentagon’s global leadership.

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The opinion from Trump World is that Hegseth, as a decorated military veteran, is likely to be confirmed, although there is anger that he did not come forward with the reform team about paying the woman who accused him of sexual harassment, and signed an NDA, in what he called an agreed meeting in California in 2017.

The opinion of the reform team is that Hegseth did not do anything against the law, he said that he made a deal with the suspect who lied to save his marriage – and he did not go to the hospital for four days – and he did not want this community because he was afraid of losing. his job is Fox.

I agree you will probably be vindicated, and the gang is very concerned about Tulsi Gabbard and RFK Jr. As a practical matter, I think the GOP-controlled Senate can only reject one nominee.

With Gaetz out of the picture, the scrutiny of Trump’s critics may shift to defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)

The concern about Gabbard as director of national intelligence is that he has no experience in that sensitive area, that the former Democratic congressman met with Syrian hero Bashar Assad despite his killing of hundreds of thousands of people, and is often seen toeing the line of Putin. . The question is whether it is worth it.

There are more concerns about Kennedy’s bid to become HHS secretary. He has good ideas, but even putting aside his history of dishonesty, he embraces one conspiracy theory after another: Vaccines cause autism, WiFi causes cancer, water systems should stop using fluoride.

Worse, this is what he said in 2020, accepting the idea that the federal government deliberately created the epidemic – what he called “the pandemic” – that killed 1.2 million Americans. This is equivalent to the facts of 9/11.

What is important here is that the criticism comes from the left. Liberals in the media and on the Hill don’t like RFK because he’s picky and he’s seen as a corrupt Democrat who has said a lot of crazy things over the years, and that could be enough to sink his candidacy.

Trump World doesn’t care about other nominees in the sense that the average voter has never heard of Trump’s picks for Power or HUD.

There is Republican outrage at his choice of Pro-Union Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer for Labor, but that’s among the insiders.

President-elect Trump’s cabinet has been ideologically diverse of late, hiring everyone from hard-liners to Democrats, and from long-serving congressmen to well-known TV personalities. (Getty Images)

What stands out is that this is a Cabinet that is divided according to the views of the present time.

As Axios was the first to point out, the list ranges from Marco Rubio as Secretary of State to current and former members of Congress to controversial picks like Hegseth, Gabbard and RFK, to Dr. Oz, to run Medicare and Medicaid Programs, to Fox medical commentators and Marty Makary to run the FDA and Janette Nesheiwat as surgeon general; both are doctors. And he chose former congressman Dave Weldon to take over the CDC.

In a CBS poll, 59% approve of Trump’s handling of the reforms.

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The internal jockeying also led to leaks like this one, per the Washington Post:

“Donald Trump’s lawyer and adviser Boris Epshteyn recently arrived at a Cabinet selection meeting at the Tea Room at Mar-a-Lago to find his way blocked.

Transition chairman Howard Lutnick, an executive at Cantor Fitzgerald, told Epshteyn in front of others that this was not his meeting. ‘We are not talking to the official nominees today,’ Lutnick said, according to one person familiar with the process.

“Epshteyn refused to budge. Using his forearm, he pushed Lutnick out of the way, according to two people familiar with the incident, which Lutnick later recounted to others. ‘I’m going in,’ Epshteyn replied, according to one of the officers. people.

Cantor Fitzgerald’s CEO and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick reportedly had a rough time at a recent Mar-a-Lago meeting, apparently interrupted by Boris Epshteyn – who shouldn’t have been there. (ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)

“A third party described the incident as Epshteyn walking past Lutnick on his way to a meeting.”

This floodgate approach diverted attention from the Gaetz fiasco and raised questions about White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and how much input she has. And unlike the usual one-nominee-a-day approach, it dims the focus on nominees who are likely to be criticized by the media, such as Dr. Oz, who is often accused of selling ineffective remedies on his TV show, because he’s going to need one. scorecard to track Trump’s election storm.

So why did Trump pick Matt Gaetz in the first place?

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It may have been an unexpected move when Trump was on the plane with him, along with Wiles. But the president-elect has enough information that it will cause a firestorm in the media, and insiders are calling it a screw-you decision for your establishment.

Even if Trump thought Gaetz couldn’t do it, it would be hard to turn down a backup appointment, especially one as qualified as Pam Bondi.

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Whatever your opinion, there’s no doubt that Trump has handled the transition well and, without exception, it’s off to a good start.