Not the Life Matt Gaetz Was Planning On

The normal rules of public disgrace may no longer apply to Donald Trump. But at least some expectation of good behavior remains, it seems, for a politician in Trump’s orbit.After a multiyear investigation, the House Ethics Committee reported today that former Representative Matt Gaetz paid “tens of thousands of dollars” to various women, including one 17-year-old girl, “for sex and/or drugs” on at least 20 occasions. Many such allegations had been reported before but specific details are always more shocking to the senses, and the report was heavy on those.“The Committee received testimony that Victim A and Representative Gaetz had sex twice during the party, including at least once in the presence of other party attendees,” the panel said. “Victim A recalled receiving $400 in cash from Representative Gaetz that evening, which she understood to be payment for sex. At the time, she had just completed her junior year of high school.”In its conclusion, the committee said it had found evidence that Gaetz violated several House rules “prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, impermissible gifts, special favors or privileges, and obstruction of Congress.”I reached out to Gaetz’s former congressional aides for his comment on the report, and they pointed to his long denial on X, now pinned to the top of his profile, which is full of all-caps disclaimers. “I was charged with nothing: FULLY EXONERATED,” he wrote. “It’s embarrassing, though not criminal, that I probably partied, womanized, drank and smoked more than I should have earlier in life. I live a different life now.”That life is already different from the one he’d carefully planned. A week after the November election, the 42-year-old Florida Republican was named as President-Elect Trump’s choice to lead the Justice Department. Gaetz quickly gave up his seat in Congress—to forestall, it was widely assumed, publication of the ethics committee’s report. But the maneuver seemed to have failed when, a month ago, he pulled out of the running for attorney general and announced the launch of a show on the relatively marginal One America News Network. As one former Republican lawmaker from Florida who’d collaborated with Gaetz in the House (and who asked for anonymity to speak candidly) described his former colleague’s future: “It’s oblivion.”A man who reportedly dreams of being Florida governor is now facing the blunt reality of his own political irrelevance. “He is farther from the governor’s mansion now than ever,” Peter Schorsch, a Florida publisher and former political consultant who previously worked with Gaetz, told me. “GOP voters are not going to go with the P. Diddy of Florida politics.”[Read: The potential backlash to Trump unbound]“Matt Gaetz is winning,” I wrote in my profile of the congressman back in April. “He has emerged as the heir of Trumpism. And he’s poised to run for governor in a state of nearly 23 million people.”Until very recently, Gaetz was winning. He had, in the past few years, become a MAGA folk hero for his commitment to posture and provocation—as well as a trusted confidant of Trump. He was able to exact revenge over his arch-nemesis, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. More than anything, though, Gaetz seemed relieved: He’d been released from a set of ruinous claims after the Justice Department, which had been investigating sex-crimes allegations against him, dropped its probe in 2023, reportedly because of witness-credibility problems.Already personally rich, Gaetz has only ever wanted one thing: relevance. And his path forward seemed obvious to anyone who’d ever known him. At the end of 2025, he would run for governor of his home state—and, given his relationship with Trump, he seemed likely to win the GOP primary. Serving two years at the helm of Trump’s Justice Department could help Gaetz in that quest; even if his nomination were to be blocked, he could campaign as a victim of the “deep state” and the GOP establishment.Yet all of Gaetz’s planning fell apart. After initially voting not to release the report, the ethics panel took a second, secret vote earlier this month in which all five Democrats on the panel, plus two of its Republicans, chose to make their findings public. This morning, Gaetz filed a restraining order against the House panel to halt the official release, accusing the committee of an “unconstitutional” attempt “to exercise jurisdiction over a private citizen.” That last-ditch effort failed.After standing down from consideration as attorney general, Gaetz was being wooed by Newsmax, a TV network owned by the Trump ally Christopher Ruddy, where Gaetz has previously guest-hosted. But with the unreleased ethics report still hanging over his head, Gaetz instead accepted a role anchoring a show on OANN, a significantly smaller and less influential network. “If it gets much worse, he’s gonna be on public access,” Schorsch said. Some observers I spoke with expect Gaetz to relocate to San Diego, where OANN is based, which is nearly 3,000 miles from the Trump White House—far enough that it might as well be Mars.Some in MAGA world have come to Gaetz’s defense: Steve Bannon, the former White House chief strategist, said today on his War Room podcast that the ethics report is “a big nothingburger” and encouraged Gaetz to “go full Harper Valley PTA” by returning to Congress on January 3 to take the oath of office—which Gaetz could technically do, given that he was reelected to his seat in November. Bannon called OANN a “great little channel,” but said Gaetz could do better than being a talk-show host: “You’ve got enough crazy people like Tucker Carlson and myself yelling in microphones,” he said. “We need a man in the arena.”Gaetz has already mused about a plan for revenge that would force other House members to disclose their sexual-harassment settlements. “He’s lashing out because he knows it’s over,” the former Republican lawmaker from Florida told me.Trump has not seemed eager to jump to Gaetz’s defense. After Gaetz withdrew from the AG race, the president-elect posted on Truth Social the kind of message you might read in your high-school yearbook from a loose acquaintance: “Matt has a wonderful future, and I look forward to watching all of the great things he will do!”In two years’ time, Gaetz might still run for Florida governor. But his chances of success have dwindled, allegation by toxic allegation. “Who knows” whether Gaetz will try to run, the former Republican legislator texted me. “This isn’t being MAGA or America first. This is being a disgrace.” Gaetz’s implosion has probably made it easier for Trump and his allies to begin consolidating their support behind a candidate in a crowded field. “I know the bar has been lowered for what is acceptable behavior out of our politicians, but Florida voters know a creep when they see one,” Schorsch said.Gaetz’s superpower has always been his ability to find the spotlight and stay stubbornly in it. Yet he will have a hard time accepting his ouster from the white-hot center of MAGA world during a new Trump administration and adjusting to a new perch far outside the perimeter. At OANN, Gaetz could engineer a way to make himself relevant once again—transforming himself into a media personality with influence and reach. But for now at least, Gaetz’s winning streak is over.