PALM BEACH, Fla. - Former Congressman Matt Gaetz greeted his admirers Thursday night on the lawn outside Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort and was freshly appointed by the president-elect to the post of the nation's top law enforcement official, even as the House of Representatives is investigating allegations that he sexually abused a 17-year-old girl.
The second Trump administration blossomed with life around him, dressed in black ties and sparkly dresses. Soon to speak was action star Sylvester Stallone. Elon Musk, the world's richest man, made an appearance, as did Robert F. Kennedy Jr, Trump's proposed nominee for secretary of health and human services, who just 82 days earlier had accused federal health authorities of "mass poisoning of the American public".
"The mood is so beefy," said Caroline Wren, a longtime Republican fundraiser and strategist who told people at the members' club that the only job she would want to do in Trump's second term is dress up as the Easter Bunny on the White House lawn.
But outside of the celebrations and behind closed doors, not much went on as planned. According to interviews with the 18 people involved, most of whom spoke on condition of anonymity to speak candidly, the transitional government did not properly vet some potential candidates. But Trump followed his own script in many personnel choices - selecting unvetted candidates and acting outside the transition structure in a way that immediately created serious political problems. So far, the president-elect has been mostly unruffled, boisterous, and basking in his victory on the terrace of Mar-a-Lago.
Unlike in 2016, when the president-elect was unsure how he wanted to shape the government, and chose most of his cabinet members from within the Republican establishment, Trump approached this round of appointments with a determination to reward loyalty and find fighters to take on what he sees as his governmental enemies in the "deep state."
However, some of these people brought their luggage with them. Senior transition officials have become concerned about the confirmation process for both Gaetz and Pete Hegseth, Trump's nominee for secretary of defense, four people in Trump's inner circle said. Trump, however, has made it clear that he is not inclined to withdraw either of those picks because he is confident that the incoming Republican-controlled Senate will support them, people close to him said.
"All of President Trump's nominees have the necessary experience and qualifications to implement his pro-American agenda," Steven Cheung, Trump's incoming White House communications director, said in a statement. "We look forward to each of the nominees being confirmed to immediately join the new administration."
Top Trump associates spent Thursday before the gala in an emergency meeting to discuss the surprising 2017 sexual assault allegation against Hegseth, which team members said they only learned about this week. The transition team was sent a lengthy and detailed document by a woman who said she was friends with the victim. The allegations against Hegseth were investigated by local authorities in California but never prosecuted, they said. Hegseth reportedly agreed to a private settlement and confidentiality agreement with the accused.
Tim Parlatore, Hegseth's attorney, said Friday that the assault allegation was "fully investigated and found to be false." Asked if Hegseth had sought a confidentiality agreement with the woman in question, Parlatore replied that "no other skeletons have surfaced." He added that "there is no reason for resignation that I know of." Cheung described the allegations against Hegseth as "lies fabricated by the left-wing media".
Meanwhile, a lawyer for the woman at the center of the Gaetz investigation wrote on social media that an unpublished House of Representatives ethics committee report on Gaetz's conduct should be made public, a move opposed Friday by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana), who also attended Thursday's gala at Mar-a-Lago.
"She was a high school student and there were witnesses," wrote X lawyer John Clune in a request for transparency in the report.
Trump's Republican allies in the Senate have reached out to Trump advisers over concerns about Gaetz, while Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-North Dakota) has gone on record saying the investigation will be made public. The Justice Department had previously investigated Gaetz after his ex-boyfriend pleaded guilty to sex trafficking a minor for the benefit of other adults. Prosecutors never brought charges against Gaetz, who has denied paying for sex or having sex with minors.
"I'd be hard pressed to find 20 senators who would vote for Matt Gaetz - there's no way Gaetz is going to be confirmed," said one Senate Republican aide. "The Senate is not going to give up its advisory and consent role for these people. There are still many senators who take their jobs seriously."
While crises were brewing behind the scenes, a steady stream of people - billionaires, financiers, socialites, family members, spouses and political activists - streamed through Trump's Palm Beach resort for a series of celebratory events. Former Trump adviser Stephen K. Bannon, who was recently released from prison after being convicted of contempt of Congress, spoke Friday at another gala at Mar-a-Lago for the Conservative Political Action Committee. Argentine President Javier Milei also spoke at the club.
"It's a more sophisticated swamp, but it's crazy. I've never seen anything like it. You've got all these Florida marmalades that have hardly ever seen Washington, D.C., talking about moving here. People are trying to recruit relatives," said one person who has been observing the spectacle for days. "You go to the club and you run into all these creatures."
Trump won the election with a unified leadership team that brought some order and decision-making to the campaign. However, this structure fell apart in the days after his victory on 5 November and is now subject to Trump's whims. His team presents names in presentations and he responds in real time. Other times, he suggests names of people who have not been vetted by the transition team.
"Names are dropping everywhere. There's no functional process - it's really whoever they just decide to name," said one of the participants.
Some people in Trump's inner circle have said that Susie Wiles, Trump's campaign manager and incoming White House chief of staff, is facing challenges to handle the transition period with the same level of discipline she maintained during the campaign. After the election, she spent several crucial days away from Trump at a donor event in Las Vegas. Cheung said she continued to call for appointments and "actively engaged in the transition process every day."
And the decision to nominate Gaetz as the 87th attorney general came about ad hoc after Trump became frustrated with competing camps lobbying for different candidates and after two contenders - Republican Sens. Mike Lee (Utah) and Eric Schmitt (Missouri) - made it clear they wanted to stay in the Senate.
On Wednesday, Gaetz hitched a ride on Trump's plane to Washington, and it was then that Boris Epshteyn - Trump's legal adviser who was also on board - turned the discussion to the prospect of Gaetz in the top law enforcement role. Epshteyn, a polarizing figure in Trump's inner circle, played a significant role in the transition, according to three people involved. Wiles, who was also on board, had no objection to his selection, one of those present said, and Gaetz's name had come up as a possibility earlier.
Trump's other campaign co-chairman, Chris LaCivita, also took part in the Las Vegas confab before he went to New Mexico to hunt a six-by-six elk, which he cut into sausages and sent back to Virginia, according to a person familiar with the events. LaCivita has not been as forceful in the transition debates as he was in the campaign.
"Let's stop pretending everything is on and going according to plan when people don't think so anymore," another person familiar with Trump's inner circle said of the task ahead for Wiles. "This is not a campaign where she can control every aspect of it."
Conservative activists, who shaped Trump's first term with the help of then-Vice President Mike Pence, expressed concern about some of the personnel choices and worried that they might be shut out, even though think tanks were making significant preparations for Trump's second term.
Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democratic congresswoman selected to serve as director of national intelligence, has been a critic of U.S. military support for Ukraine and met with Syrian leader Bashar Assad in 2017. Kennedy's stated plans included several long-term liberal regulatory priorities, such as limiting processed foods in school lunches and banning food additives.
"It's hard to argue that a Putin apologist who is friends with Assad represents a conservative foreign policy. It's hard to argue that somebody who wants to get rid of fluoride in your water and is pro-choice for nine months is a conservative family choice," said Marc Short, a longtime Pence adviser, referring to Gabbard and Kennedy, respectively, before saying that Gaetz's choice "makes a mockery of the entire Justice Department - which Trump might want - but it's not really progress on law and order."
Cheung dismissed Short's comments as criticism of "outsiders who have no idea what they are talking about and represent the establishment political class".
When Trump was elected in 2016, the transition process similarly foundered in the early months, though access to Trump, who operated out of his office and apartment in Trump Tower in New York, was more tightly controlled and he had less certain ideas about the people he wanted to select. He picked Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson as his first secretary of state, largely because Tillerson appeared on his radar in the first chaotic days and Trump thought he "looked good." He chose his first secretary of defense, Jim Mattis, in part because of his Marine nickname, "Mad Dog," according to a person involved in the process.
This time, Trump has been telegraphing his intentions for years, clearly stating that he will seek "payback" for himself and the voters and reshape the federal bureaucracy. The scale of this month's victory, with Republicans retaining control of the House of Representatives and winning the Senate, has only emboldened his ambitions. Trump's advisers were skeptical this summer about Kennedy's ability to pass Senate confirmation, but those concerns dissipated in the days after the election, according to people involved. Trump decided on Kennedy as head of HHS days after the election but didn't announce it right away, one person said.
One of Trump's friends advised him over the weekend that the attorney general is the most important appointment he will make, and suggested he pick a confidant who will be unflinchingly loyal - despite opposition from Congress or the public. Gaetz, however, is not who this confidant had in mind.
"I certainly didn't tell him to pick Matt Gaetz - that's a disaster," Friend said. "It really bothers me because it's such a stupid pick."
Other first picks were less controversial. Trump's selection of Senator Marco Rubio (R-Florida) for Secretary of State was widely praised by Republicans and even some Democrats. Many also welcomed his choice of former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, who has long held the view that Jews have a biblical right to Palestinian land, for the post of ambassador to Israel.
Gabbard, a former Army lieutenant colonel, has long been Trump's favorite expected to win an appointment to the administration. She has expressed interest in several posts, including secretary of defense, secretary of veterans affairs and the post of intelligence director, to which she was appointed, according to a person familiar with the negotiations.
As the party went on Thursday night, there was little indication of what political obstacles Trump will face when he arrives in Washington next year. People posed for photos by the pool and waited in line at the outdoor bar, where various Trump stalwarts gave impromptu welcome speeches before heading to the ballroom. In their seats, they found wedge salad and gifts, including hardcover copies of Melania Trump's memoir and a $99 picture book, "Save America," published by Trump's eldest son and Sergio Gor, whom Trump announced Friday as White House director of presidential personnel.
Any tension that arose over Trump's omission of traditional Republican insiders for key Cabinet posts went without significance, as Brooke Rollins, who formerly headed his Domestic Policy Council, and Larry Kudlow, his former National Economic Council director, praised Trump in his opening speech.
Stallone also came to the microphone. In his characteristic raspy voice, he described Trump as a "mythical being".
"When George Washington defended his country, he didn't know he was going to change the world." said the actor. "Guess what? We have a second George Washington."
washingtonpost.com / photo: Saul Martinez / gnews.cz-jav
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