Who is controversial US politician Matt Gaetz? The Trump supporter ousted House speaker Kevin McCarthy and echoes MAGA talking points – but also supports weed legalisation and adopted a kid from Cuba

At the same time, Gaetz has supported the legalisation of medical marijuana in Florida and “adopted” a young boy from Cuba.

Matt Gaetz advocated for controversial bills

Gaetz, 42, worked as an attorney in Northwest Florida with the Keefe, Anchors & Gordon law firm before being elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 2010, where he is currently serving his fourth term, per his official bio.

During his tenure, he has advocated for several controversial bills, including supporting the “stand your ground” law – which decrees that people may use deadly force to defend against certain violent crimes – as well as expediting executions of prisoners on Florida’s death row, per ABC.

He also supported removing a ban on adoptions by same-sex couples and, per BBC, famously convinced his father, ex-senator Don Gaetz, to do the same. According to the New Yorker, Gaetz played a key role in helping draft legislation for the legalisation of medical marijuana in his home state of Florida. “Matt was a big-time proponent of marijuana, and a big-time user,” a former Republican official told the publication.

He comes from a political family

Gaetz’s political lineage can be traced back to his grandfather Jerry. Per the New Yorker, Jerry was a former mayor of Rugby, North Dakota and coined the campaign slogan, “Unbought! Unbossed! Unbowed!”

Known as “baby Gaetz”, Matt followed in his father Don’s footsteps, who was a former state senator in Florida. According to the New Yorker, Don made millions from a business involving receiving reimbursable funds for hospice care.

Per France24, Gaetz grew up in a house that was featured on the hit Hollywood film The Truman Show starring Jim Carrey. Washington Post revealed that his parents still live in the home with a sign on their fence saying “The Truman House”.

He was investigated for sex trafficking

In 2021, Gaetz’s political career came under the spotlight when he was investigated for sex trafficking after a 2018 trip to the Bahamas. Per The Guardian, the allegations included sex trafficking, sex with a minor, illicit drug use, and misuse of campaign funds. Gaetz denied the claims that he had sex with a 17-year-old girl and that he paid for sex, per Politico.

Last year, the Justice Department confirmed that no charges would be made. In June, the House Ethics Committee said it would continue to investigate some of the claims around Gaetz. Per CNN, the committee had spoken with more than a dozen witnesses and reviewed thousands of documents about the issue.

He spearheaded the ousting of Kevin McCarthy

Sex scandals and other controversies aside, Gaetz is probably most well-known as the man who “toppled” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy last year.

The long-standing beef between the two Republicans has been extensively documented over the last few years, with some reports claiming that Gaetz believed it was McCarthy who supported the investigation by the ethics committee into the sexual trafficking allegations against him.

ABC reports that Gaetz spearheaded the opposition to McCarthy’s speakership role, which ultimately resulted in him being ousted from the position.

He stoked controversy over abortion and the Holocaust

“Baby Gaetz” is seemingly not fazed by controversy. In 2018, he made headlines for inviting Holocaust denier, Charles Johnson, to then President Trump’s State of the Union address. Per The Guardian, Johnson was banned from X (formerly Twitter) after asking for help to “take out” a Black Lives Matter activist and also questioning how many people died in the Holocaust.

CNN reported that Gaetz also came under fire for hiring a speech-writer who had previously been fired after speaking at a conference attended by white nationalists.

According to BBC, Gaetz once claimed to students that abortion supporters were less likely to get pregnant because they were unattractive.

He’s married and adopted a son from Cuba

The New Yorker reports that Gaetz and his partner Ginger Luckey, an executive at KPMG, got engaged in 2020, later eloping. Gaetz has an adopted son, Nestor, who was born in Cuba and is the brother of an ex-girlfriend. When Nestor was young, his mother died and, at 12, he came to live in the US with Gaetz.

Per the publication, Gaetz did not reveal he had looked after Nestor for years as he told People magazine he wanted to keep the boy out of the spotlight. “My work with Nestor, our family, no element of my public service could compare to the joy that our family has brought me,” Gaetz told People.