After failed AG bid, Matt Gaetz has a new side hustle — to get your money

Matt Gaetz has a new side hustle after withdrawing from consideration to be President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general last week.
The Florida Republican resigned from the House shortly after Trump tapped him to be his attorney general in his second administration. However, Gaetz announced he would withdraw from consideration last week after numerous Republican lawmakers raised concerns about Gaetz’s qualifications and the allegations of sexual misconduct brought against him.
With no plans to return to Congress in 2025, Gaetz has become the latest embattled Republican to join online video service Cameo.
“I served in Congress. Trump nominated me to be US Attorney General (that didn’t work out). Once I fired the House Speaker,” Gaetz’s Cameo biography reads.
Gaetz is charging at least $500 for personalized video messages, according to his Cameo profile, which is shared in his social media platform X bio. The Cameo website said users can ask Gaetz to make a video for a holiday or birthday gift, to give someone a pep talk, to “roast” someone, and much more.
The videos that are previewed on Gaetz’s Cameo profile show him capitalizing off of his failed bid for attorney general. In a message congratulating someone on being made partner at their law firm, Gaetz says: “Here you are making partner, and my legal career took a little bit of a different turn this last week.”
Gaetz created his Cameo profile on Friday, just one day after he announced his decision to withdraw from consideration. Gaetz is not the only former Republican lawmaker to join Cameo in recent years. After former Rep. George Santos was expelled from the House last year, he also joined the online platform to sell custom videos.
And now, current Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) has also apparently joined Cameo. But politics reporter Reese Gorman noted that joining Cameo may not be allowed for current members of Congress, according to sources.
Gaetz’s nomination as attorney general had stunned many career lawyers inside the Justice Department, but reflected Trump’s desire to place a loyalist in a department he has marked for retribution following the criminal cases against him.
Hours after Gaetz withdrew, Trump nominated Pam Bondi, the former Florida attorney general, who would come to the job with years of legal work under her belt and that other trait Trump prizes above all: loyalty.
It’s unclear what’s next for Gaetz, who is no longer a member of the House. He surprised colleagues by resigning from Congress the same day that Trump nominated him for attorney general. Some speculated he could still be sworn into office for another two-year term on Jan. 3, given that he had just won reelection earlier this month.
But Gaetz, who has been in state and national politics for 14 years, said he’s done with Congress.
“I think that eight years is probably enough time in the United States Congress,” he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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