Opinion: Matt Gaetz is the perfect crash test dummy for Trump's GOP Senate loyalty test

Republicans in the U.S. House and Senate who sounded shocked by President-elect Donald Trump's selection of Matt Gaetz for attorney general must have just woken up after a monthslong nap.

Gaetz, who resigned from his Florida congressional seat Wednesday ahead of the potential release Friday of a House Ethics Committee report on his long metastasizing underage sex and drug scandal, is exactly the kind of guy Trump promised on the campaign trail to sic on his perceived enemies if he got back to the White House.

The real surprise here is the other Florida man – Trump's pick of U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio to be secretary of State. Rubio is a former Trump critic who has given up on his old-style Republican approach to the world in favor of fawning fealty to his new boss. But he still voted to certify Trump's 2020 presidential loss.

And Rubio has the kind of political and foreign affairs experience that makes his pick make sense, which is not something you can say about Gaetz.

The shock here is that Trump shows any tolerance for political proficiency as he assembles a troupe of advisers for what is clearly going to be a circus of vengeance, where Republicans in Congress can be crammed just as quickly into the clown car as Democrats.

Trump picking Gaetz for attorney general makes perfect Trumpian sense

Trump adores demolishing institutional norms that could constrain his worst impulses as president. There's only one thing he loves more – putting people on the spot to test their capacity to show him unquestioning loyalty.

Gaetz is the perfect crash test dummy for that kind of ordeal, because Trump trusts Republicans in Congress about as much as he trusts Democrats.

His nomination promises a center-ring spectacle of a confirmation hearing in the U.S. Senate, which Republicans will control in January with a narrow majority. Already the usual suspects from the Senate Republican caucus – Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska – are kicking up a fuss.

So Trump gets to take a roll call of which Republicans will oppose him. They'll stammer and stall before falling in line ? and will do whatever Trump wants as soon as he wants it.

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Consider U.S. Sen. Markwayne Mullin, a Republican from Oklahoma, who complained last year on CNN about Gaetz bro-ing out on the floor of the House, showing people pictures of women he had allegedly bedded while bragging about his prowess.

Mullin acknowledged that on CNN Wednesday while adding: "I completely trust President Trump's decision-making" about Gaetz.

Put Mullin in the "do whatever Trump wants as soon as he wants it" camp. He certainly won't be lonely there.

Trump wants Senate Republicans to not do their jobs in a show of loyalty to him

What a time to be the new Republican leader in the Senate. John Thune of South Dakota won that title Wednesday, beating John Cornyn of Texas and the favorite in Trump's camp, Rick Scott of Florida.

Trump last Sunday declared that any new leader in the Senate "must agree to Recess Appointments," a procedural tactic where a president can try to circumvent the Senate's duty to provide advice and consent while approving Cabinet picks. Thune, Cornyn and Scott all fell quickly in line behind that notion.

Thune now gets to play ringmaster in the Gaetz show. He either goes with transparency in an open hearing process in the Senate Judiciary Committee that lays bare Gaetz's very nature, or he shuts down the Senate to let Trump temporarily install Gaetz as the top prosecutor in the country. Either way, Trump puts Thune on the spot to see if he can pass the test.

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Cornyn may have complicated that math Thursday by saying the House Ethics Committee report on Gaetz's alleged dalliances with a 17-year-old girl and drug-fueled parties – which he has denied – should "absolutely" be released as part of the vetting for the proposed attorney general.

"I think there should not be any limit on the Senate Judiciary Committee's investigation, including whatever the House Ethics Committee has generated," Cornyn told reporters at the Capitol.

You know what Trump doesn't want? A principled attorney general.

Trump's history with attorneys general helps explain his slapdash decision to put Gaetz on the job.

His first pick in 2017, former U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, an arch-conservative from Alabama, angered Trump by recusing himself from the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Bill Barr, another longtime conservative who replaced Sessions, fared better until he crossed Trump by discrediting the former president's lies about the 2020 election being stolen.

Merrick Garland, a former judge chosen by President Joe Biden for the job, appointed a special counsel in 2022 to look into Trump's alleged criminal behavior at the end of his presidency.

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Trump's reelection victory effectively killed two federal criminal cases brought by that special counsel, Jack Smith. The president-elect still faces sentencing for a felony criminal conviction in a New York state case and criminal charges in Georgia for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election in that state.

Trump has only learned one lesson from all of that – the only way to escape being held accountable for criminal behavior is to pick who prosecutes criminal behavior.

Gaetz is his guy because he has weathered a Department of Justice investigation into his seedy behavior and came out on the other side of that last year with no charges filed against him. That's the sort of outcome Trump covets for his new presidency. And Gaetz would give it to him while also testing the loyalties of Republicans who might balk at all that.

Follow USA TODAY elections columnist Chris Brennan on X, formerly known as Twitter: @ByChrisBrennan

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Opinion: Trump's Gaetz AG nod is a test. Will Senate Republicans pass?