President-elect Donald Trump reacted to the news that his nominee for attorney general former Rep. Matt Gaetz suddenly withdrew his name from consideration.

‘I greatly appreciate the recent efforts of Matt Gaetz in seeking approval to be Attorney General,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social. ‘He was doing very well but, at the same time, did not want to be a distraction for the Administration, for which he has much respect.’

Gaetz, a unequivocal supporter of President Trump, had earned respect from the president-elect despite the salacious allegations that followed him. 

In his statement reacting to the decision, Trump said he looked forward to Gaetz’s future career. 

‘Matt has a wonderful future, and I look forward to watching all of the great things he will do!’ he wrote. 

Gaetz was nominated by Trump to be his attorney general eight days ago despite allegations of sexual relations with a minor, which the House Ethics Committee had been investigating.

Trump was standing by Gaetz as late as Tuesday, when he told reporters he was not reconsidering his pick for attorney general. 

Gaetz has denied all of the allegations, reminding concerned senators skeptical of his record that Joe Biden‘s Justice Department investigated him for sex trafficking, but ultimately did not charge him.

But new shocking details emerged Thursday about the accusations against Gaetz seemingly tanking his chances to be confirmed by a majority of the Senate. 

CNN reported that a woman testified to the House Ethics Committee that she had two sexual encounters with Gaetz when she was 17.

That allegedly included an encounter with another adult woman, CNN reported on Thursday, just prior to Gaetz’s announcement that he would withdraw. 

The adult woman in question denied the incident.

Gaetz responded to the CNN story by withdrawing his name from consideration.

‘While the momentum was strong, it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition,’ Gaetz said in a statement. 

‘There is no time to waste on a needlessly protracted Washington scuffle, thus I’ll be withdrawing my name from consideration to serve as Attorney General.’

Vice president-elect and current Senator J.D. Vance appeared in the Senate with Gaetz on Wednesday to help convince Republican senators to support the controversial pick for attorney general. 

But new details from the investigation continued to leak to the press.  

Documents from the House investigation obtained by news outlets Wednesday evening showed records of Venmo payments made by Gaetz to two women who were witnesses in the investigation.

Between July 2017 and January 2019, Gaetz allegedly made 27 Venmo payments totaling $10,224.02 to the two witnesses.

Notes from the Venmo payments referred to reimbursements, gifts, car deductible, refreshments, travel, and even more personal reasons such as ‘just because,’ ‘being my friend,’ ‘being awesome,’ ‘Joy!’ and ‘Love you.’

But the final blow to his confirmation appeared to be the revelation of additional details within the House investigation. 

The charm offense appeared to come up short. 

Gaetz was shown an informal whip count in the Senate prior to his announcement to withdraw, according to the New York Post. 

Senators reacted on Capitol Hill after the news broke, as many Senate Republicans were relieved. 

‘I think that was appropriate,’ Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell said to reporters. 

Sen. John Fetterman, (D-PA) reacted with characteristic candor, suggesting it was all just a troll from the president-elect and his allies. 

‘Holy s**t I didn’t see that coming,’ he told reporters. ‘You know, if you want to respond to absolute trolling, you know, then you really got to pace yourself. It’s not even Thanksgiving.’