Trump reportedly doubts senators will back Matt Gaetz but still lobbies hard

Donald Trump has reportedly told associates that Matt Gaetz, his nominee for attorney general, has a less than 50-50 chance of being confirmed by the Senate, even while pushing forward with his nomination amid damaging sexual misconduct allegations.

The president-elect has continued making calls in support of his beleaguered nominee despite resistance from Republican senators because he is confident his insistence will alter the standard for acceptable cabinet choices even if Gaetz fails, the New York Times reported.

Trump’s landscape-changing tactics have become evident following his nomination of three other controversial picks – Pete Hegseth, Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F Kennedy Jr – for the positions of defense secretary, director of national intelligence and secretary for health and human services respectively. All face potential obstacles in winning Senate approval.

Gaetz’s nomination has been widely viewed as inappropriate because the far-right ex-Florida congressman underwent a two-year FBI investigation over sex-trafficking allegations that have also been the subject of an inquiry by the House of Representatives’ ethics committee.

No charges resulted from the criminal investigation. But two women who said Gaetz paid them to have sex with him in 2017 have given testimony to House investigators, which has been recorded in an as-yet-unpublished report.

The New York Times also reported on Tuesday that an unidentified hacker had gained access to a computer file shared in a secure link among lawyers whose clients have given damaging testimony about Gaetz. The Times said the material accessed was a file of 24 exhibits, including sworn testimony from someone who claimed she had sex with Gaetz when she was 17. The file also reportedly contained corroborating testimony by a second woman who said she was a witness to the encounter.

Amid the damaging revelations, numerous senators have privately indicated that Gaetz – who has vowed to purge the justice department in line with the future president’s wishes if he become attorney general – has little chance of being confirmed, a reality that Trump appears to recognise.

The Republicans will have a majority of 53-47 in the Senate following this month’s election when the new Congress is sworn in on 3 January. More than three Republican senators have indicated they are unwilling to confirm Gaetz, who is unlikely to win the backing of any Democrats in confirmation hearings.

Some Republicans are privately hoping that the incoming president withdraws the nomination, fearing that they might face a primary challenge as a punishment for blocking his chosen nominee.

“[Senators] are privately hoping Trump doesn’t make them walk the plank,” Politico reported .

“Knowing how toxic a character they are dealing with [in Gaetz], Senate Republicans are worried about getting tarnished by the process. They fear that senators up for re-election in 2026 … could face a Maga primary challenge if they oppose his nomination – while possibly kissing their seats goodbye in a general election if they back him.”

Instead, the incoming president has indicated that he is determined to press ahead regardless – apparently determined to nominate so many extreme choices that they cannot all be rejected.

But Trump’s senior aides have also privately voiced concerns that he is squandering vital political capital when he could be promoting more feasible nominees and pushing his governing agenda. That message was said to have been delivered to Trump and the vice-president-elect, JD Vance, by Susie Wiles, the incoming White House chief of staff.

Support has come from Trump’s richest surrogate, the entrepreneur Elon Musk, who posted on his own X platform that Gaetz “is the JUDGE DREDD America needs to clean up a corrupt system and put powerful bad actors in prison”.

If Trump continues to insist, Gaetz could end up facing his two female accusers at Senate hearings on Capitol Hill.

Senators have called for the release of the House ethics report, the publication of which was in effect suspended when Gaetz peremptorily resigned his seat after being nominated last week. The House speaker, Mike Johnson – a close Trump ally – has resisted calls to publish nonetheless.

John Cornyn, a Republican senator for Texas, said releasing the report would not be necessary because the details of allegations against Gaetz could be revealed by the witnesses, who would be called before the Senate judiciary committee.

“The truth is, the information is going to come out one way or the other,” he told the Washington Post. “It’s not critical that they release a report, because we know roughly who the witnesses are.”