Attorney General Matt Gaetz Would Backfire on Trump

In nominating Matt Gaetz for attorney general, President-elect Trump has signaled his support for radical change at the Justice Department. As former DOJ attorneys, we do not doubt that the nation’s premier federal law enforcement agency would benefit from significant reform. But by proposing a nominee as unqualified and as troubled as Gaetz, Trump would frustrate the very forces of reform that he would unleash.

The roadblocks to Trump’s agenda would grow even more difficult if the returning president were to resort to an unprecedented, untested theory of appointing Gaetz without Senate approval — a gambit that would plunge the DOJ into a political and legal quagmire.

About the Author

John Yoo

John Yoo is the Thomas W. Smith Senior Fellow at the Civitas Institute, University of Texas at Austin; Emanuel S. Heller Professor of Law at the University of California at Berkeley; and a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. He is a co-author of the just-released two-volume American Constitutional Law (Routledge, 2026).

RD

About the Author

Robert J. Delahunty

Robert J. Delahunty is a fellow at the Claremont Institute’s Center for the American Way of Life.

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Matt Gaetz

In nominating Matt Gaetz for attorney general, President-elect Trump has signaled his support for radical change at the Justice Department. As former DOJ attorneys, we do not doubt that the nation’s premier federal law enforcement agency would benefit from significant reform. But by proposing a nominee as unqualified and as troubled as Gaetz, Trump would frustrate the very forces of reform that he would unleash.

The roadblocks to Trump’s agenda would grow even more difficult if the returning president were to resort to an unprecedented, untested theory of appointing Gaetz without Senate approval — a gambit that would plunge the DOJ into a political and legal quagmire.

About the Author

John Yoo

John Yoo is the Thomas W. Smith Senior Fellow at the Civitas Institute, University of Texas at Austin; Emanuel S. Heller Professor of Law at the University of California at Berkeley; and a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. He is a co-author of the just-released two-volume American Constitutional Law (Routledge, 2026).

RD

About the Author

Robert J. Delahunty

Robert J. Delahunty is a fellow at the Claremont Institute’s Center for the American Way of Life.