Someday after withdrawing from consideration as Donald Trump’s legal professional normal, former Rep. Matt Gaetz stated he’s executed with Congress.
“I am nonetheless going to be within the battle, however it is going to be from a brand new perch,” Gaetz advised Charlie Kirk on his radio present Friday. “I don’t intend to hitch the 119th Congress.”
Gaetz, first elected to his Home seat in 2016, has been a nuisance to his occasion’s management all through his time in Washington, although he’s cultivated and maintained a detailed rapport with Trump.
The Florida firebrand — a moniker he named his podcast after — led the profitable cost to dethrone former Speaker Kevin McCarthy from his perch atop the Home Republican Convention. He’s drawn ire from Home Republicans and Democrats alike, few of whom have a optimistic phrase to say about his model or substance.
“I am gonna be preventing for President Trump,” Gaetz stated to Kirk. “I am gonna be doing no matter he asks of me, as I all the time have. However I feel that eight years might be sufficient time in the US Congress.”
A key unanswered query is what occurs to a looming Home Ethics Committee report on Gaetz over alleged sexual misconduct with underage girls. The committee deadlocked this week on whether or not to launch its findings on the Florida Republican, vowing to fulfill once more in December on the matter.
The Justice Division additionally investigated Gaetz over the sexual misconduct allegations, however closed its probe with out submitting formal expenses. Gaetz has all the time maintained he did nothing improper.
Gaetz’s political profession is probably going not over, nevertheless. He might nonetheless be a part of the Trump administration in a task that doesn’t want Senate affirmation — or run for workplace once more in his residence state.
He’s been one thing of an enigma inside the trendy Republican Get together, urging motion to deal with local weather change and legalize leisure marijuana, but in addition elevating eyebrows from his colourful private life. Gaetz launched the world in 2020 to his “adopted son” Nestor Galban — by way of whose financial payment platform accounts he allegedly paid women for sexual encounters (which he denies).
Gaetz resigned from Congress instantly upon being tapped by Trump for his administration, earlier this month, however he additionally received reelection in November to his seat for the subsequent Congress — leaving an open query, and potential thorny authorized points, on if he might return subsequent 12 months. Florida should schedule a particular election to interchange him subsequent 12 months, however hasn’t introduced the dates but. A number of folks have already filed to run.
Some Gaetz allies have floated the concept of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis appointing Gaetz to the Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Marco Rubio, who is anticipated to be confirmed simply as secretary of State. Gaetz and DeSantis had been as soon as shut, and Gaetz performed a key position within the governor’s transition in 2018. However Gaetz’s loyalty within the presidential election fell to Trump in 2024 when DeSantis himself ran for the job, and he’s not thought-about a possible contender for the soon-to-be open seat.
Gaetz has lengthy expressed curiosity in operating for governor sometime, and DeSantis is ready to time period restrict out in 2026. Gaetz was on the Capitol in Tallahassee on the finish of the 2024 session and evaded questions on his curiosity within the job, saying he was targeted on his position in Washington.
“I’d positively get pleasure from that job a lot,” Gaetz advised Donald Trump Jr. and his fiancée, Kimberly Guilfoyle, last year during a livestream, referring to the Florida governor’s mansion. “I’d by no means go away it if I ever obtained that chance.”
Gaetz by no means confronted a troublesome congressional race within the deep-red district he represents, and several other different prime Florida Republicans have expressed curiosity in operating for governor in 2026, together with Florida Lawyer Common Ashley Moody; Florida Lt. Gov. Jeannette Nuñez; Florida Chief Monetary Officer Jimmy Patronis; and Rep. Byron Donalds. Gaetz’s father, Don Gaetz, simply received a seat to the state Senate and was president of the Florida Senate.
Gaetz’s spouse, Ginger, has been leaving cryptic posts on X about what’s subsequent, writing on Friday that “Unemployment has by no means regarded so good,” whereas posting a picture of her husband subsequent to a cocktail at a bar. When somebody requested what they had been as much as, she posted a GIF that learn, “Maintain guessing.”
