Trump news recap: Matt Gaetz reveals if he'll return to Congress... and what he thinks of Pam Bondi

Matt Gaetz said he fell victim to a 'smear' campaign that dredged up old and discredited allegations in his first interview since withdrawing his name for consideration as Donald Trump's attorney general.

He sensationally dropped out on Thursday amid a drip, drip, drip of allegations from a House Ethics Committee probe into allegations that he had sex with an underage girl.

'If the things [in] the House Ethics report were true, I would be under indictment and probably in a prison cell,' he told The Charlie Kirk Show, according to clips shared exclusively with DailyMail.com.

'But of course, they're false, because when you test them against other records, when you test them against other testimony, it all falls apart very quickly.'

He said he was the victim of a politically motivated campaign because of his key role in forcing out Kevin McCarthy as House Speaker.

And he insisted he could have answered all the allegations during his confirmation hearings but that the process would have dragged on, undermining Trump's plans to begin his overhaul of government on day one.

The interview will be released at midday Friday.

By Emily Goodin, senior White House correspondent

Melania Trump announced her first major hire for her return as first lady, naming a longtime Trump loyalist as her chief of staff.

Hayley Harrison, who worked in the East Wing during the first Donald Trump administration and joined the Trumps in Florida after they left the White House, was named to the position.

Harrison, along with her husband William 'Beau' Harrison, are Trump White House staffers who joined the first couple in Mar-a-Lago for their post-presidency life. Hayley and Beau traveled on Marine One with the Trumps from the White House on January 20th, 2021.

The couple have stayed in Trump's inner circle and on the payroll: they are paid by Trump's Save America PAC to work for former president, according to Federal Election Commission reports. Hayley was pulling in about $8,0000 to $10,000 a month in salary. William was earning a similar amount until November 2023, when he received his last payment from the PAC.

In the chief of staff announcement, Harrison's longtime loyalty - seven years of working for Melania Trump - was noted. Donald Trump also has stacked his staff with loyalists.

From Rob Crilly, Chief U.S. Political Correspondent in Palm Beach, Florida

The terrace is packed every night with politicos looking for a post or people simply looking to party. The opportunistic and the merely curious are offering members thousands of dollars to land a seat at dinner.

And since November 5 Mar-a-Lago has become 'the most exclusive place' on the planet,' according to one regular.

Every night is like a party, as guests throng the pool deck waiting for the man who will become the 47th president of the United States to make his grand entrance.

'It is the hottest ticket in town,' said one veteran Palm Beach socialite, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of losing out on invitations if he was seen as a gossip.

'It's full every night.'

Former Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler has emerged as the favorite to become Donald Trump's next secretary of Agriculture.

The 53-year-old blonde bombshell didn't dispel suggestions she was being considered for the top Cabinet job earlier this week.

She disclosed on the Politically Georgia Podcast that she's a 'huge advocate' for rural America.

'I grew up on a farm and I'm still actively involved in agriculture,' Loeffler said.

'I'm a huge advocate for rural America, and most of my bills that I passed in Congress were rural healthcare funding and related bills.'

Loeffler served in the Senate briefly from 2020 to 2021 after being appointed by Gov. Brian Kemp.

By Emily Goodin, senior White House correspondent

Angela Merkel, the former German chancellor, who worked with four American president had harsh words for Donald Trump in her new memoir, noting the then American president was ‘fascinated’ with Vladimir Putin.

Long-anticipated in Germany, the book, ‘Freedom: Memoirs 1954-2021,’ covers her childhood in communist East Berlin and her years as chancellor: 2005 to 2021. She was the first woman to hold that office.

In an interview with the German weekly Der Spiegel, she said every meeting with Trump was ‘a competition: you or me.’

She described the president-elect, whom she worked with during his first term, as a ‘challenge for the world, particularly for multilateralism.’

‘What awaits us now is really not easy,’ she said.

She admits she would have preferred if Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris won their respective races against Trump.

In her memoir, excerpts which were published in the German weekly Die Zeit, she describes Trump as looking at politics through the lens of a real estate mogul.

‘He saw everything from the perspective of the property developer he was before entering politics,’ she wrote of their March 2017 meeting in the Oval Office. ‘Each parcel of land could only be sold once, and if he didn't get it someone else did. That's how he saw the world.’

She notes: ‘He believed that all countries were in competition with each other, in which the success of one was the failure of the other.’

‘He did not believe that the prosperity of all could be increased through cooperation,’ she added.

She also wrote that Trump repeatedly quizzed her about Vladimir Putin.

‘Donald Trump asked me a number of questions, including about my East German origins and my relationship with Putin,’ she noted.

‘He was obviously very fascinated by the Russian president,’ she wrote. ‘In the years that followed, I had the impression that politicians with autocratic and dictatorial traits captivated him.’

Trump’s incoming White House communications director Steven Cheung declared victory after a Manhattan judge put off sentencing and agreed to hear arguments on dismissing his hush money case entirely.

‘In a decisive win for President Trump, the hoax Manhattan Case is now fully stayed and sentencing is adjourned. President Trump won a landslide victory as the American People have issued a mandate to return him to office and dispose of all remnants of the Witch Hunt cases,’ Cheung said in a statement.

‘All of the sham lawfare attacks against President Trump are now destroyed and we are focused on Making America Great Again,’ he added. A jury convicted Trump on 34 counts of falsifying business records but Trump’s lawyers argued it would be a miscarriage of justice to continue after Trump was reelected.

Donald Trump's new pick for attorney general was a fierce defender who attacked Joe Biden during Trump's first impeachment – and tangled with a lawyer for O.J. Simpson when his client moved to Florida after his acquittal on murder charges.

Bondi, 59, who Trump announced was his choice to be the nation's top law enforcement officer after the stunning withdrawal of Rep Matt Gaetzfter just days amid sex trafficking allegations – has long been known as a fierce Trump loyalist.

She called him a friend while delivering remarks at a Trump campaign rally during a blistering response after billionaire Mark Cuban said Trump didn't want to have strong, intelligent women around him.

Progressive firebrand Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tore into MAGA favorite Marjorie Taylor Greene for a new gig she's about to embark on in the House.

The Georgia Republican congresswoman is being tapped to head up a new subcommittee that will work with Trump's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) being led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.

But for the socialist-backed Squad member AOC, the news of the controversial Trump supporter heading up a subcommittee was a source of entertainment.

'This is good, actually,' the New York congresswoman wrote on X about her colleague's new post.

'She barely shows up and doesn’t do the reading. To borrow a phrase I saw elsewhere, it’s like giving someone an unplugged controller,' she continued.

In another post, AOC wrote 'Absolutely dying at those two now getting assigned the “privilege” of “working” with MTG. That is actually hilarious. Enjoy, fellas! Very prestigious post you have there.'

Former Rep. Ron Paul confirmed Friday he was asked by Elon Musk to advise the Department of Government Efficiency.

Paul, a long time critic of government waste and spending, appeared willing to team up with Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy as they look to root out some of the most obvious government waste.

Paul's social media post on the issue, however, also included a link to an advertisment, prompting some speculation whether it was an actual agreement or just a way to promote one of his sponsors.

Donald Trump's sentencing in the hush money case has been delayed indefinitely and New York Jude Juan Merchan has opened the door for the charges to be thrown out.

It was the latest stunning turnaround in the case, where Trump had been scheduled to be sentenced before the election aft his conviction on 34 counts of falsifying financial records.

That sentencing, which could have brought four years of jail time, was delayed. Now that he is set to take office as the 47th president, Trump's team wants the case tossed entirely, now that their client, the first former president to be convicted of a crime, is set to take the reins of power.

Underlining the oddities of the case, Trump's lawyer Todd Blanche, who urged the case get tossed, is now being nominated to be the No. 2 official at the Department of Justice.

'Just as a sitting President is completely immune from any criminal process, so too is President Trump as President-elect,' wrote lawyer Todd Blanche and lawyer Emil Bove, who is also nominated to a top DOJ post, in a filing to judge Merchan.

Matt Gaetz's wife Ginger posted a cryptic picture of him one day after he stunningly withdrew his name as Donald Trump's nominee for attorney general.

The former congressman is shown in a dark suit sitting at a bar with a martini in front of him.

'Unemployment has never looked so good,' Ginger said in a post along with the picture.

On Thursday, she sent her husband heartfelt messages of support after he dropped out of contention for Trump's Cabinet after he was accused of having a threesome with a minor.

By Emily Goodin, senior White House correspondent

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden will hold a thank you dinner for their longtime loyalists on the South Lawn of the White House Friday evening.

Aides say it’s a thank you for campaign staff. Longtime loyalists and donors are expected to be on the guest list.

The event will have the trappings of a state dinner but it’s not a country being honored. It’s those who have stuck by Biden during his more than 40 years in public life.

A glass pavilion has been built, similar to those used when foreign leaders visit. The covered space will be needed – rain mixed with snow flurries in the forecast for the evening.

It will also allow the Bidens to invite more people. The state rooms in the White House can only accommodate a few hundred guests. The pavilion can hold several hundred.

One person who won’t be there is Vice President Kamala Harris. She and second gentleman Doug Emhoff are in Hawaii for vacation.

Donald Trump hit his first stumbling block over Cabinet picks with the seemingly forced withdrawal of Matt Gaetz from consideration as attorney general.

But he quickly replaced the sex-scandal embattled former Florida congressman with the Sunshine State's ex-attorney general Pam Bondi.

There are a slew of other loyal allies who stood by him during his first term and in the four years outside the White House.

Those include Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy as co-heads of the 'Department of Government Efficiency', and John Ratcliffe as Director of the CIA.

He has also nominated former Democrat Tulsi Gabbard, who infuriated critics with claims about 'biolabs' in Ukraine, to be Director of National Intelligence.

And his choice of military veteran and Fox News host Pete Hegseth to run the sprawling Defense Department, despite little experience managing anything of that scale and complexity, has come under fire as well, heightened by allegations of a past sex assault.

With that in mind, DailyMail.com has been keeping an up-to-date scorecard of the second Trump administration's potential Cabinet and West Wing.

Dana White was a quasi-permanent fixture on Donald Trump's campaign trial as he threw his full support behind the Republican candidate in his bid to seek re-election.

The UFC president, who is close friends with the 78-year-old, has been such an ardent supporter that he even stole the limelight during Trump's victory celebrations at Mar-a-Lago after beating Kamala Harris at the ballot box.

But now that Trump has sealed his return to the White House, the UFC chief wants nothing to do with the president-elect's second term - or politics at all.

Matt Gaetz has hailed Pam Bondi, his successor as Donald Trump's nominee for Attorney General.

Gaetz dropped out on Thursday and was quickly replaced by Bondi.

In a statement on X, Gaetz said:

Pam Bondi is a stellar selection by President Trump for Attorney General. Pam and I worked closely together when she was Florida's Attorney General and I chaired Criminal Justice in the state house.

She's a proven litigator, an inspiring leader and a champion for all Americans. She will bring the needed reforms to DOJ.

Donald Trump moved quickly to find a new candidate for attorney general on Thursday, announcing the former Florida A.G. Pam Bondi as his pick to head the nation's legal system.

Matt Gaetz withdrew his name from consideration earlier in the day when it became clear that a lingering scandal meant he did not have the votes to be confirmed in the Senate.

'Pam was a prosecutor for nearly 20 years, where she was very tough on violent criminals, and made the streets safe for Florida Families,' Trump posted on Truth Social as he made the announcement.

Insiders said the charm offensive went well.

Matt Gaetz spent Wednesday in Washington, D.C., with Vice President-elect J.D. Vance meeting 10 key Republican senators he would need to secure his confirmation as Donald Trump's controversial attorney general.

'Feedback from the senators on the meetings was very positive,' said a source close to Vance.

And a day earlier Trump had made clear he had no plan B if it came to a test of strength. 'No,' he told a reporter when asked whether he was reconsidering his choice.

But that all unraveled spectacularly on Thursday, when Gaetz announced he was withdrawing from consideration amid the fallout from a federal sex trafficking investigation.