What the End of Matt Gaetz Taught Us About Trump’s Weakness
And Our Power
The post-election spin-out was really, really rough. The onslaught of horrifying nominations, including that of one Matthew Louis Gaetz II for Attorney General, have only amplified the horror.
I wrote about Matt Gaetz and his assault of a teenaged girl three and a half years ago, when the story first broke. I’ve had my eye on him ever since, because of all the people in Trump’s circle, he was of the top five for whom I’ve long awaited justice, not to mention karma.
But in the election aftermath, for a moment there, Gaetz’s confirmation as AG seemed inevitable. Every time I mentioned it on Threads or Bluesky, I was met with some version of the same response: “of course they’ll confirm him.”
Over the past ten days, as outcry about Gaetz’s crimes rose, and demands for the release of the House Ethics report detailing Gaetz’s crimes grew, some folks on our side of the fence still seemed to continue to just go belly up for Trump’s version of fascism, with a kind of resigned “nothing we can do will stop him” sort of sigh, or a bitter cynicism that all hope was lost, no matter what, nothing to be done then.
But yesterday, after still more nauseating details of Gaetz’s drug-fueled orgies with teenagers came to light, Gaetz suddenly withdrew his nomination, as I was live on YouTube urging viewers to stop falling prey to hopelessness.
What I felt in that moment was not just relief, but actually a new resolve.
Why? Because the resignation of Matt Gaetz taught us that Trump’s insane agenda is not untouchable, and that, in fact, he can be beaten with the right, targeted strategies to derail his plans.
The spell of inevitability has broken. And thank the gods for that.
Now, you may be thinking to yourself, “but not every nominee is a sexual predator.” You’d be surprised, as at least three others in Trump’s orbit have been accused of assault.
But it’s not the nature of the crimes that matter so much for our current purposes as the lesson of the last few days.
One of the things that precipitated the end of Matt Gaetz’s career was a flood of calls to the House demanding that the House Ethics Committee release its report on his crimes, and a similar flood of calls to the Senate demanding that electeds refuse to confirm him.
No matter that some of those Senators are MAGA. Even Mitch McConnell, it turns out, stated that he wouldn’t vote to confirm Gaetz if given the chance.
Our voices still matter (not that I doubted it, but some of us did). We still have power to effect real change (not that I doubted it, but some of us did).
The story of what comes next for America is still unwritten, and we each have a role to play in how it unfolds.
Want to learn more about how to fight back against the new Trump administration?
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Back in 2017, in the throes of the first Trump Administration, I held a conference in New York City for women leaders invested in pushing back against the administration and creating change wherever they could.
My friend Tolu Olubumni spoke at that conference, telling her remarkable story of immigrating from Nigeria to the United States as a teenager, committing to her own version of the American Dream, and succeeding to great heights, including giving a speech at Obama’s White House on behalf of Dreamers nationwide.
At the end of her talk, she shared with us a famous African proverb: “History will always glorify the hunter– until the lion learns to write.”
It’s stuck with me, that proverb. It comes back to me at moments when I feel powerless, or like there is not even the faintest glimmer of hope.
Some of us have felt that way since November 5th.
But I am here to tell you that it is time to remember that we are lions.
What Trump wants for this nation is not a done deal. Nothing is written in stone. Each of us have the capacity to influence the future in small and large ways, and it’s time to commit to it.
74 million of us and counting voted for Kamala Harris. We are not powerless.
With a little cunning and the right strategies, we can throw sand in the gears of Trump’s plans at every turn. We can work to create safety for everyone we love who is under threat, and for ourselves. We can resolve that, however we are able, we will link arms with people around us and stand up for what is right. We can raise our voices whenever we know that injustice is on the horizon, and seek to stop it.
What the Gaetz loss told us is that Trump is not infallible.
And while we may not win every battle, with the right decisions and a commitment to never backing down, we will win some.
And every single victory matters when we’re fighting for a better nation and for the safety of those we love.
Keep on, people. It’s time to learn to write the future.
Want to learn more about the topics in this article?
We have a new program called The Dual Power Accelerator: A Ten Week Training for Disruption, Community Building, Solidarity, Safety and Survival that is currently open for registration. Join us.
Go, ECM! We women are with you! We women lawyers are with you!
And take a look at Laura George's Founding Mothers' Movement. Only two demands:
1. Stop war!
2. Start respecting and partnering with women!
Could be a powerful connection for your own work, ECM. Laura is also a lawyer. She built a Peace Pentagon in Independence, Virgininia. She calls her Center "The Oracle Institute".
If you want to learn more, here's a starting link: https://www.foundingmothers.world/
I love the idea, but cannot afford the $700 expense right now. I hate that finances are keeping me from joining the fight in this way, but as a retiree my financial world is not as forgiving as it once was.