Matt Gaetz Is by Far the Least Popular Trump Pick With American Voters

Former Rep. Matt Gaetz is by far the least popular pick among American voters for Donald Trump’s cabinet, according to a new survey.

Polling from Echelon Insights, conducted November 14-18, asked 1,010 voters what they think of Trump’s nominees for his cabinet, who will now have to be confirmed by the Senate.

They include vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health and human services secretary; billionaire and owner of X and Tesla Elon Musk as director of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency; and Florida Representative Matt Gaetz, who has been under investigation by the House Ethics Committee, as attorney general, among others.

Despite being controversial figures, the poll revealed that more voters support Kennedy Jr. and Musk than oppose them. For example, 42 percent said they strongly or somewhat support Kennedy Jr., while 38 percent strongly or somewhat oppose his nomination to the cabinet. For Musk, 44 percent of voters support him, while 40 percent oppose him.

Marco Rubio, who has been nominated as secretary of state, had the strongest backing, with voters supporting him at 39 percent, and 30 percent opposing him. Vivek Ramaswamy, who will lead the Department of Government Efficiency alongside Musk, was supported by 33 percent of voters, while 28 percent opposed him, the poll showed.

Former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, nominated as director of National Intelligence, had net support of 3 percentage points, while South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem had net support of 1 point.

Two of Trump’s picks had more voters opposing them than supporting them. They included the nominee for secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, who was supported by 24 percent of voters and opposed by 26 percent, and Gaetz, whose net opposition was in double digits, with 37 percent opposed compared to 26 percent supporting him.

Newsweek contacted Gaetz and Trump’s transition team for comment via email.

Hegseth is a former Fox News presenter who claims he hasn’t washed his hands in a decade. Meanwhile, Gaetz is currently under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for alleged sexual abuse and illicit drug use, allegations he denies. Immediately after his nomination, Gaetz resigned from Congress, temporarily blocking the release of the committee’s report on him, days before it was set to go public.

Gaetz is also accused of having sex with a 17-year-old girl on a game table at a July 2017 party, according to her lawyer. Gaetz had been sworn in to his first term in the House in January of that year. He has denied any wrongdoing.

Trump could face difficulty getting his nominees confirmed by the Senate. Half of Senate Republicans, including some in senior leadership positions, have privately said they don’t see a path for Gaetz to be confirmed by the Senate, NBC News reported.

To get around this predicament, Trump has suggested he could use recess appointments and bypass the Senate to get Gaetz confirmed. “Any Republican Senator seeking the coveted LEADERSHIP position in the United States Senate must agree to Recess Appointments (in the Senate!), without which we will not be able to get people confirmed in a timely manner,” Trump posted to X, formerly Twitter, last Sunday.

But Republican Senator Kevin Cramer has already suggested he does not support this move. “I just think it’d be unwise to do that if he can’t get the votes of the majority party, which is his party. If — it’s one thing if the minority party objects or obstructs in some manner using the tools that they have, then I think, you know, with our cooperation, you could, you could do that. I think it’d be a little unwise to have us, without our cooperation, to cooperate in a recess appointment,” he said in a Fox News interview.

But Cramer is the only Republican who has come out against Trump using recess appointments. Others have supported the strategy.

On Monday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell faced huge backlash after he was alleged to have warned Trump’s team: “There will be no recess appointments,” during a meeting in Washington, D.C. The claim was reportedly made by New Yorker staff writer Jane Mayer in a since-deleted post on X.

In response, Florida Senator Rick Scott posted on X: “Yes, there will be.” Utah Senator Mike Lee added: “Remember that time when McConnell decided he wouldn’t be speaking for Senate Republicans anymore?”