Ginger Gaetz beams as she stands beside her husband in loved-up photos curated on her Instagram page.
The 30-year-old wife of the former Florida congressman and Donald Trump’s original pick for attorney general, Matt Gaetz, proudly describes herself as his “wifey” in her profile bio.
Her supportive posts about Gaetz, 42, signaled an intent to stand by him as he battled resurfaced sexual allegations from his past.
And now, she has now signaled she will continue to stand by him after he announced he was withdrawing from the process of becoming Trump’s next attorney general.
“It is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition,” Gaetz wrote in a post on X on Thursday.
“The end of an era,” Ginger quickly posted on Instagram, minutes after her husband’s announcement.
Sharing a photo of the couple walking hand in hand up the steps of the Capitol, she added: “No one loves America more than this guy.”
Just three days ago, Ginger had asked her followers, “Who else is excited for January?” with a throwback 2020 photo with Gaetz at a White House event.
And last week, as the backlash against Gaetz began to mount, Ginger wrote: “Attorney General will look great on you my love.”
While the vast majority of her followers posted supportive messages, she ignored one comment. “Him behind bars will be better,” one person retorted.
Before he resigned from Congress following Trump’s nomination to head up the Justice Department, Ginger wrote how Florida’s 1st congressional district “is truly blessed to have you representing us.”
“Congratulations to the sweetest, hardest-working, and most talented man in the world,” she gushed.
In another snap with Gaetz on the steps of the Capitol, she said: “Happiest by your side.”
Two days after Gaetz was nominated by Trump, Ginger posted the message, “Strong men create good times” on her X profile accompanied by a photo of her husband with right-wing Turning Point founder Charlie Kirk and Argentinian President Javier Milei.
The storm that engulfed Gaetz is not the first time Ginger – the sister of Republican donor and entreprenuer Palmer Luckey – has stood by him.
The couple first met at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in early 2020 when she was 26.
The next night he reportedly took her to a birthday party for Donald Trump Jr.’s then-girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle.
After a whirlwind 8-month romance, Gaetz, then 38, popped the question at Mar-a-Lago in December 2020, the Daily Mail reported. “It didn’t come as a surprise, I had sort of seen it coming,” Ginger told the paper at the time.
At the same time, the Justice Department was investigating Gaetz for allegations of sex trafficking a minor. No criminal charges were brought against him and he has repeatedly denied the allegations.
The investigation was opened in Trump’s final months in office under Attorney General Bill Barr, the New York Times reported at the time, and it bubbled away until the DOJ ended it last year. The House Ethics Committee was also running a separate probe into the allegations, which included the accusation that Gaetz had sex with a minor, which he vehemently denies.
Apparently undeterred by the accusations, Ginger accepted Gaetz’s proposal and they got married in a small ceremony in Southern California in 2021.
Speaking at the time when she worked as a food analyst, Ginger, a former Harvard Business School student, told the Mail she could work remotely in order to follow her husband wherever he went. “I am his travel buddy,” she said.
Since they wed, her social media profile has become a homage to her husband’s political career and shows her socialising with some of Trump’s most vocal allies.
Elon Musk branded her “cool” for a video where she sang the Star Spangled Banner across the Capitol Rotunda.
Last summer, she appeared on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast to lambast the Barbie movie for “completely miss[ing] an opportunity”, saying it “was everything BUT female empowerment.”
She is also frequently in photographs with MAGA firebrand Lauren Boebert, known for her controversial takes and comments, including enthusiastic remarks about the QAnon conspiracy theory.
As some of the most damning alleged evidence against Gaetz is made public, Ginger continues to be his biggest cheerleader.
Among the latest is a bombshell leaked document from the Justice Department investigation alleging there was a web of payments between the former congressman and friends and associates said to have been with him at drug-fueled sex parties.
He vehemently denies the accusations. “This purposeful leaking of classified investigative materials is the sort of politicized D.O.J. weaponization that Matt Gaetz will end,” Trump’s communications director Steven Cheung said in a statement before Gaetz announced his withdrawal.
“The Justice Department investigated Gaetz for years, failed to find a crime and are now leaking material with false information to smear the next attorney general.”
On Wednesday, the House Ethics Committee was deadlocked over whether to release their report into Gaetz.
“There was no consensus on this issue,” Democratic Representative Susan Wild said, adding that the committee will meet again on December 5.
