Over the past few years, Florida congressman Matt Gaetz has risen through the political ranks to become a fierce MAGA mouthpiece , making headlines for his controversies and his ongoing feud with fellow Republican Kevin McCarthy. Last year, McCarthy was ousted from his position as speaker for the United States House of Representatives – a move spearheaded by Gaetz. {"@context":"https://schema.
org","@type":"ImageObject","caption":"Matt Gaetz supports marijuana legalisation, but is also a MAGA supporter. Photo: Getty Images/AFP","url":"https://img.i-scmp.
com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/08/15/a4ba480f-3369-41f2-aed3-5f7eec0ec061_aeeec48b.jpg"} Matt Gaetz supports marijuana legalisation, but is also a MAGA supporter. Photo: Getty Images/AFP At the same time, Gaetz has supported the legalisation of medical marijuana in Florida and “adopted” a young boy from Cuba.
While his MAGA roots are clear, the lawyer-turned-politician has definitely made some surprising decisions that have made him a political wild card. Here is what you need to know about one of Donald Trump’s leading henchmen. Matt Gaetz advocated for controversial bills {"@context":"https://schema.
org","@type":"ImageObject","caption":"Matt Gaetz in 2023 is currently serving his fourth term as Florida representative. Photo: Reuters","url":"https://img.i-scmp.
com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/08/15/a83924d2-d87c-430f-bc54-0509ee45a16e_5fb2f6f5.jpg"} Matt Gaetz in 2023 is currently serving his fourth term as Florida representative. Photo: Reuters Gaetz, 42, worked as an attorney in Northwest Florida with the Keefe, Anchors & Gordon law firm before being elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 2010, where he is currently serving his fourth term, per his official bio.
During his tenure, he has advocated for several controversial bills, including supporting the “stand your ground” law – which decrees that people may use deadly force to defend against certain violent crimes – as well as expediting executions of prisoners on Florida’s death row, per ABC. He also supported removing a ban on adoptions by same-sex couples and, per BBC, famously convinced his father, ex-senator Don Gaetz, to do the same. According to the New Yorker, Gaetz played a key role in helping draft legislation for the legalisation of medical marijuana in his home state of Florida.
“Matt was a big-time proponent of marijuana, and a big-time user,” a former Republican official told the publication. {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"ImageObject","caption":"Representative Matt Gaetz promoted the patently false idea that Donald Trump had the 2020 election “stolen” from him.
Photo: Getty Images/AFP","url":"https://img.i-scmp.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/08/15/6ba5cec6-534f-4f43-83f4-4c156fc293f7_73065531.
jpg"} Representative Matt Gaetz promoted the patently false idea that Donald Trump had the 2020 election “stolen” from him. Photo: Getty Images/AFP Over the years, Gaetz has earned a reputation for being a hardline MAGA supporter and has openly supported Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 US election results by erroneously claiming they were marred by fraud. That year, Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden , who was elected president.
Gaetz has also adopted the language of the ultra-right-wing “proud boys” when showing support to Trump in his felony trial, per AP. Gaetz has sought an alliance with controversial politician Marjorie Taylor Greene , and pushed for the impeachment of President Biden over claims that he profited from his son’s businesses while he was vice-president. He comes from a political family {"@context":"https://schema.
org","@type":"ImageObject","caption":"US Representative Matt Gaetz has pushed for the impeachment of president Joe Biden. Photo: Reuters","url":"https://img.i-scmp.
com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/08/15/d225e43f-d5c3-4976-bb9b-3fdd3ccac8a7_5bafe56b.jpg"} US Representative Matt Gaetz has pushed for the impeachment of president Joe Biden. Photo: Reuters Gaetz’s political lineage can be traced back to his grandfather Jerry.
Per the New Yorker, Jerry was a former mayor of Rugby, North Dakota and coined the campaign slogan, “Unbought! Unbossed! Unbowed!” Known as “baby Gaetz”, Matt followed in his father Don’s footsteps, who was a former state senator in Florida. According to the New Yorker, Don made millions from a business involving receiving reimbursable funds for hospice care. Per France24, Gaetz grew up in a house that was featured on the hit Hollywood film The Truman Show starring Jim Carrey.
Washington Post revealed that his parents still live in the home with a sign on their fence saying “The Truman House”. He was investigated for sex trafficking {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"ImageObject","caption":"US politician Matt Gaetz was investigated for sex trafficking.
Photo: Getty Images/AFP","url":"https://img.i-scmp.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/08/15/fc20d47d-1806-4443-a14f-c2d072087bf6_9aeefed3.
jpg"} US politician Matt Gaetz was investigated for sex trafficking. Photo: Getty Images/AFP In 2021, Gaetz’s political career came under the spotlight when he was investigated for sex trafficking after a 2018 trip to the Bahamas. Per The Guardian, the allegations included sex trafficking, sex with a minor, illicit drug use, and misuse of campaign funds.
Gaetz denied the claims that he had sex with a 17-year-old girl and that he paid for sex, per Politico. Last year, the Justice Department confirmed that no charges would be made. In June, the House Ethics Committee said it would continue to investigate some of the claims around Gaetz.
Per CNN, the committee had spoken with more than a dozen witnesses and reviewed thousands of documents about the issue. He spearheaded the ousting of Kevin McCarthy Sex scandals and other controversies aside, Gaetz is probably most well-known as the man who “toppled” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy last year. The long-standing beef between the two Republicans has been extensively documented over the last few years, with some reports claiming that Gaetz believed it was McCarthy who supported the investigation by the ethics committee into the sexual trafficking allegations against him.
{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"ImageObject","caption":"Kevin McCarthy and Matt Gaetz have a long-documented feud. Photo: Getty Images","url":"https://img.
i-scmp.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/08/15/fcca16e2-3281-4de9-900a-16dfd89fec0c_f3f8d04b.jpg"} Kevin McCarthy and Matt Gaetz have a long-documented feud.
Photo: Getty Images ABC reports that Gaetz spearheaded the opposition to McCarthy’s speakership role, which ultimately resulted in him being ousted from the position. The battle between the two erupted again at the Republican National Convention in July this year, with USA Today reporting Gaetz approached McCarthy at the event and said if he was speaking he would get “booed” off the stage. He stoked controversy over abortion and the Holocaust {"@context":"https://schema.
org","@type":"ImageObject","caption":"Matt Gaetz was slammed for inviting a holocaust denier to a State of the Union address. Photo: Getty Images/TNS","url":"https://img.i-scmp.
com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/08/15/c04c51f8-e28c-4a1c-ad25-9aeead9006ea_595de0ff.jpg"} Matt Gaetz was slammed for inviting a holocaust denier to a State of the Union address. Photo: Getty Images/TNS “Baby Gaetz” is seemingly not fazed by controversy.
In 2018, he made headlines for inviting Holocaust denier, Charles Johnson, to then President Trump’s State of the Union address. Per The Guardian, Johnson was banned from X (formerly Twitter) after asking for help to “take out” a Black Lives Matter activist and also questioning how many people died in the Holocaust. CNN reported that Gaetz also came under fire for hiring a speech-writer who had previously been fired after speaking at a conference attended by white nationalists.
According to BBC, Gaetz once claimed to students that abortion supporters were less likely to get pregnant because they were unattractive. He’s married and adopted a son from Cuba {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"ImageObject","caption":"Matt Gaetz with his partner Ginger Luckey.
Photo: @mattgaetz/X","url":"https://img.i-scmp.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/08/15/e38a0257-f9bd-456b-8c03-d1f8e37d2216_13a97b16.
jpg"} Matt Gaetz with his partner Ginger Luckey. Photo: @mattgaetz/X The New Yorker reports that Gaetz and his partner Ginger Luckey, an executive at KPMG, got engaged in 2020, later eloping. Gaetz has an adopted son, Nestor, who was born in Cuba and is the brother of an ex-girlfriend.
When Nestor was young, his mother died and, at 12, he came to live in the US with Gaetz. {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"ImageObject","caption":"Matt Gaetz with his adopted son, Nestor.
Photo: @mattgaetz/Instagram","url":"https://img.i-scmp.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/08/15/8574430f-cfb8-45aa-926e-4f15db48d34a_60a39171.
jpg"} Matt Gaetz with his adopted son, Nestor. Photo: @mattgaetz/Instagram Per the publication, Gaetz did not reveal he had looked after Nestor for years as he told People magazine he wanted to keep the boy out of the spotlight. “My work with Nestor, our family, no element of my public service could compare to the joy that our family has brought me,” Gaetz told People.
A ‘big-time user’ of weed, Matt Gaetz is the son of ex-senator Don Gaetz, and grew up in the house featured in Jim Carrey’s The Truman Show; he was investigated for sex trafficking in 2021 He’s allied with Marjorie Taylor Greene, invited a Holocaust denier to Trump’s State of the Union address, and told abortion supporters they were less likely to get pregnant as they were unattractive.
