Matt Gaetz Net Worth 2025: Earnings & Career

Matt Gaetz is an American politician who has been a prominent figure in U.S. politics. His net worth and career have garnered significant attention due to his roles in Congress and his involvement in various political and legal matters.

Age, Biography, and Wiki

Matt Gaetz was born on May 7, 1982, making him 43 years old as of 2025. He is a Republican politician who has served as a U.S. Representative for Florida's 1st congressional district since 2017. Gaetz is known for his conservative views and has been a strong supporter of former President Donald Trump.

Occupation	Politician
Date of Birth	7 May 1982
Age	43 Years
Birth Place	Hollywood, Florida, U.S.
Horoscope	Taurus
Country	U.S

Height, Weight & Measurements

There is limited public information available about Matt Gaetz's height, weight, or measurements.

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Dating & Relationship Status

Matt Gaetz is married to Ginger Luckey Gaetz, whom he wed in 2021.

Gaetz's father represented parts of northwest Florida as a member of the Florida State Senate from 2006 to 2016, was Senate president from 2012 to 2014, and was elected to the Florida Senate again in 2024. Gaetz's grandfather, Jerry Gaetz, was the mayor of Rugby, North Dakota, and a candidate for lieutenant governor of North Dakota at the 1964 North Dakota Republican Party state convention, where he died of a heart attack.

In 2013, Gaetz announced that, in 2016, he would run for the 1st district State Senate seat held by his father, Don Gaetz, who was term-limited in 2016. On March 21, 2016, Gaetz withdrew from the race, choosing instead to run for the U.S. House seat representing Florida's 1st congressional district; the incumbent, Jeff Miller, had announced 11 days earlier that he would not seek reelection.

On February 26, 2019, the night before the scheduled public hearing of Michael Cohen, Trump's former personal attorney, before the House Oversight Committee, Gaetz directed a tweet to Cohen that implied without evidence that Cohen had had multiple extramarital affairs and also suggested his wife might be unfaithful while he was imprisoned due to new information disclosed to her. Other members of Congress saw the tweet as an attempt to intimidate a witness. Gaetz initially defended his tweet, saying it was part of "witness testing, not witness tampering" and "I don't threaten anybody." Asked to clarify, he said his "tweet speaks for itself". After sharp criticism from other members of Congress and an implicit rebuke by speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Gaetz deleted the tweet and posted a tweet in which he apologized.

Politico reported in April 2020 that Gaetz had spent nearly $200,000 of taxpayer funds renting an office from Collier Merrill, a Pensacola real estate developer and restaurateur and longtime friend, adviser, campaign donor, and legal client. Gaetz and Merrill separately told Politico that Gaetz paid below-market rent for the space, but Gaetz later said that the rent was "at or below market rate". House rules explicitly disallow below-market rentals, and require that parties to such leases "have [not] had, [n]or continue to have, a professional or legal relationship (except as a landlord and tenant)". On July 1, 2020, the Office of Congressional Ethics notified Gaetz it had terminated its review of the lease arrangements.

In July 2020, Politico reported that its investigation had found expenditures by Gaetz that appeared to violate the House ethics rules: spending tens of thousands of dollars for a speech-writing consultant and having a private company install a television studio in his father's home in Niceville, Florida, which Gaetz uses when he appears on television. Gaetz's office acknowledged that he spent $28,000 on speech-writing services, which is prohibited by House rules except in special circumstances and with prior approval from congressional officials, but said that it was a clerical error that would be fixed. Of the television studio, Gaetz said that the company received $100 per month from his office, an amount not reported in his congressional spending records, and also charged television networks each time a network connected to the studio. A statement from Gaetz's office said the arrangement complied with House rules, and that during the setup process, his office consulted with the House Ethics Committee and the House Administration Committee.

Worried about protesters disrupting his appearance at his town hall in Pace, Florida, Gaetz prepared what his staffers called a nonverbal town hall on February 23, 2017. He printed out part of his speech onto giant boards that he would hold up if he was unable to speak. Gaetz arrived 30 minutes late to the meeting, where at least 500 constituents crowded into a bowling alley. At the meeting, he was questioned about his relationship with Trump, his stance on repealing the Affordable Care Act, and his proposal to abolish the Environmental Protection Agency. He said that Trump should release his tax returns, but stopped short of saying Congress should subpoena them. Gaetz closed his town hall by shouting Trump's 2016 campaign slogan, "Make America Great Again".

In November 2017, Gaetz introduced a congressional resolution calling for Robert Mueller to recuse himself as special counsel because of what were said to be conflicts of interest. He also asked for a special counsel investigation into the Federal Bureau of Investigation's handling of the Hillary Clinton email controversy, undue interference by U.S. attorney general Loretta Lynch in the investigation, and the Russian state corporation Rosatom's acquisition of Uranium One during Mueller's time as FBI director. Gaetz said he did not trust Mueller to lead the investigation because of Mueller's alleged involvement in approval of the Uranium One deal and alleged close relationship with dismissed FBI director James Comey, a probable person of interest in a proposed new investigation.

In March 2024, Niger announced it was ending its security relationship with the United States, which had been in place since 2012. In a report issued by Gaetz the following month, Gaetz stated that the United States embassy in Niger was suppressing information related to the decay of Niger-United States diplomatic relations. According to Gaetz's report, Niger has not authorized flights for United States Department of Defense efforts, including the sending of food, equipment, mail, or medical supplies.

As a Florida state representative in 2015, Gaetz and Representative David Richardson sponsored an amendment to repeal the state ban on same-sex adoptions. He also persuaded his father, in the Florida State Senate, to support the repeal.

According to the 2021 reports, federal investigators were looking into Gaetz's September 2018 trip to the Bahamas. Gaetz was reportedly joined by marijuana entrepreneur and hand surgeon Jason Pirozzolo, who allegedly paid trip accommodations, traveling expenses, and escort services. Investigators were reportedly exploring whether the escorts were sexually trafficked for Gaetz and whether Gaetz accepted paid escorts in exchange for political access or legislative favors for Pirozzolo, who at the time chaired the board of the Medical Marijuana Physicians Association. Gaetz made two speeches for the organization while in Congress, and Pirozzolo gave two separate donations of $1,000 to Gaetz's campaign arm, "Friends of Matt Gaetz", in March 2016 and May 2017. A spokeswoman for Gaetz denied the new allegations. A woman on the Bahamas trip—a Capitol Hill intern who did not work in Gaetz's office but who was dating him—reportedly agreed in May 2021 to cooperate with investigators, who believe she has information about Gaetz's financial transactions on the trip.

Denying any sexual relationships with minors, Gaetz said on March 30, 2021, that he did not plan to resign from the House. That same day, he tweeted that he and his family were "victims of an organized criminal extortion involving a former DOJ official seeking $25 million". This allegedly began on March 16, with a text message to his father demanding money in exchange for making sex trafficking allegations "go away". Gaetz and his father purportedly received communications saying that the FBI had photographs of Gaetz engaged in a "sexual orgy with underage prostitutes". The sender demanded millions of dollars to help secure the release of U.S. federal agent Robert Levinson (who had disappeared in Iran in 2007 and had already been presumed and declared dead), proposing that President Joe Biden would pardon Gaetz as a reward for freeing Levinson. The sender was later identified as Florida developer Stephen Alford, who was arrested on August 31.

Gaetz said his attorneys contacted the FBI, whom he said had informed them that Gaetz was a subject, not a target, of an investigation. He also said his father agreed to wear a "wire" to help the FBI record the alleged extortionists. Gaetz sent Axios screenshots of text messages, emails and documents outlining the alleged extortion scheme, which he asserted was being run by David McGee, a former federal prosecutor who has been a private attorney since 2005 and has represented the Levinson family. McGee's law firm called Gaetz's allegation "completely, totally false" and defamatory, telling The Daily Beast that Gaetz was attempting to distract from the sex trafficking investigation. Alford, who has previously been federally convicted of fraud and is represented by McGee, was federally indicted in August 2021 for allegedly conducting the scheme. Prosecutors alleged that Alford said he had contacts in the Justice Department who could arrange for a presidential pardon for Gaetz and directed Don Gaetz to wire the money to a trust account managed by McGee. McGee reportedly met with Don Gaetz before Alford did, but apparently did not discuss a presidential pardon, which Alford later admitted to the FBI that he had lied about his ability to arrange.

Also on March 30, Tucker Carlson interviewed Gaetz on Fox News. In addition to denying the allegations about his relationship with a 17-year-old girl, Gaetz denied a previously unreported claim that he had been photographed "with child prostitutes", and said that the FBI had urged a friend of his (whom Carlson had supposedly met) to claim Gaetz was "involved in some pay-for-play scheme". He also argued that "Providing for flights and hotel rooms for people that you're dating who are of legal age is not a crime."

Two top Washington prosecutors—a public corruption investigator with expertise in child exploitation crimes and a leader of the public corruption unit—have worked on Gaetz's case since at least mid-2021. Greenberg's sentencing hearing was originally scheduled for August 2021, but due to his cooperation in related investigations, had been repeatedly delayed. In January 2022, an ex-girlfriend of Gaetz's testified before a grand jury after being granted immunity; she reportedly had information relevant to two of three criminal charges being considered for Gaetz: sex trafficking a minor and obstruction of justice. (A year later, her attorney said that Justice Department prosecutors made the right decision not to charge Gaetz because "they didn't have evidence to prove a crime".) Gaetz was also accused of violating the Mann Act, which prohibits sex trafficking across state lines. Later in January 2022, Joseph Ellicott confessed that on September 4, 2017, he witnessed Greenberg telling Gaetz over the phone that the woman they had both had sex with was underage.

The House Ethics Committee began its probe in April 2021 into Gaetz's alleged misconduct but soon paused it while the DOJ investigated. Shortly after the February 2023 conclusion of the DOJ investigation, the House Ethics Committee reopened its probe. Two women, both represented by attorney Joel Leppard, testified that Gaetz paid them for sex. One of those women said that in July 2017, she saw Gaetz having sex with her 17-year-old friend and that once Gaetz became aware of the girl's age, he paused the relationship until she turned 18. The woman who was 17 at the time of the incident told the House Ethics Committee that she had two sexual encounters with Gaetz at the same party. The DOJ had charted payments showing that, between July 2017 and January 2019, Gaetz paid both women a total of over $10,000 across 27 Venmo transactions and a check. The committee received this chart from the DOJ, but the DOJ did not turn over other information the committee requested. The committee also contacted Gaetz's ex-girlfriend who in 2022 had received immunity and testified in the criminal investigation, though reportedly it did not expect her to cooperate in the ethics investigation voluntarily.

Gaetz has published a 2020 book and a 2021 podcast, both titled Firebrand. In both, he criticizes former House speaker Paul Ryan for joining the board of Fox News's parent company and blames him for canceling Lou Dobbs Tonight. In the book, while discussing dating in Washington, he writes, "I knew going in how many people had been brought down by sexual missteps in this town, so I set some rules to help me err on the safe(r) side ... [including] no dating your staff members, [etc.]."

In December 2020, Gaetz announced his engagement to his girlfriend, Ginger Luckey, the sister of Oculus VR founder and major Republican donor Palmer Luckey. They married in August 2021. Gaetz is a Baptist.

On several occasions he has mentioned that he had regarded his ex-girlfriend's younger brother, Nestor Galbán, as his family. Though Gaetz has referred to Galbán as his son in the past, the two are not related genetically or legally.

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Husband	Ginger Luckey (m. 2021)
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Net Worth and Salary

Matt Gaetz's net worth has been reported differently across various sources. As of 2024, his net worth was estimated to be around $700,000 by Celebrity Net Worth. However, some estimates suggest it could be as high as $50 million, attributed to inherited wealth and real estate investments. His salary as a U.S. Representative contributes to his income.

Though a financial disclosure form Gaetz filed in 2016 showed a net worth of $388,000, he donated $200,000 of his own money to his congressional campaign. He also resigned from two Florida House political action committees he had started and chaired; the PACs closed down and transferred $380,000 to a federal super PAC, North Florida Neighbors, whose purpose was to support Gaetz's congressional campaign.

Gaetz had argued in a November 2020 Fox News appearance that Trump "should pardon Michael Flynn [and] everyone from himself to his administration officials to Joe Exotic". In late 2020, Greenberg apparently attempted to secure a pardon from the Trump administration via a confession letter (first reported by The Daily Beast in April 2021), writing that he and Gaetz had had sex with a 17-year-old girl they believed was 19, which Greenberg learned of on September 4, 2017, and that payments had been made on behalf of Gaetz to her and other women in exchange for sex. Greenberg attempted to bribe Roger Stone with a $250,000 Bitcoin payment to secure a presidential pardon, texting Stone, "They know [Gaetz] paid me to pay the girls and that he and I both had sex with the girl who was underage." By the end of the Trump administration, Greenberg was under indictment, investigators had been questioning some Gaetz associates, and federal agents had seized the phone of one of Gaetz's former girlfriends. Gaetz's phone was also seized, and he changed his phone number in late December.

Career, Business, and Investments

Political Career: Gaetz was elected to Congress in 2016 and began serving in January 2017. He has been involved in several high-profile political events, including his role in ousting former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in 2023.
Business and Investments: Gaetz's family background and real estate investments are significant contributors to his financial standing. His father, Don Gaetz, is a former Florida Senate president with a net worth of about $35 million.
Legal Controversies: Gaetz has faced legal scrutiny, including an investigation into allegations related to sex trafficking and financial transactions.

After graduating from law school, Gaetz worked at the law firm Keefe, Anchors & Gordon (now AnchorsGordon) in Fort Walton Beach. In October 2021, the Florida bar suspended Gaetz from practicing law due to unpaid fees. He was reinstated after the $265 fee was paid.

* In January 2018, Gaetz invited Charles C. Johnson, an alt-right activist and Holocaust denier, to attend Donald Trump's State of the Union address. Johnson previously raised money for the neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer. Gaetz defended Johnson in an interview, saying that Johnson was neither a Holocaust denier nor a white supremacist. Gaetz has endorsed the white nationalist Great Replacement theory. In 2021, he called the Anti-Defamation League a "racist organization" after it condemned Tucker Carlson's promotion of Great Replacement theory. Gaetz said that Carlson "is CORRECT about Replacement Theory as he explains what is happening to America."

Gaetz voted for the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. He acknowledged that the bill's pass-through tax deduction would benefit Trump, but added, "so many Americans benefit when commercial real estate becomes easier and more accessible."

On October 12, 2017, Gaetz introduced a resolution affirming the connection between the Jewish people and Jerusalem and condemning UNESCO's efforts to the contrary. In December 2017, he supported Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital and said that the move would pressure Palestine to recognize Israel.

On August 26, 2020, Gaetz tweeted "The mob wants to destroy America. We need PATRIOTS who will defend her" in support of Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old from Antioch, Illinois, who traveled to Kenosha, Wisconsin, and shot and killed two people in self-defense during the protests of the Jacob Blake shooting. Gaetz was one of three representatives to offer Rittenhouse a Congressional internship.

In June 2021, Gaetz introduced the Digital Health Pass Prevention Act (DHPPA), a bill aimed at preventing the federal government from funding and enforcing any digital passes associated with COVID-19 vaccination status, with the support of representatives Louie Gohmert and Lance Gooden. The full title of the bill is "To prohibit Federal funds from being used to implement, administer, enforce, or carry out programs with respect to digital health passes, and for other purposes." It was sent to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce which referred it to the Subcommittee on Health. No further action was reported.

He also stated that the National Institutes of Health had given the Institute a $3.7 million grant. The U.S.-based EcoHealth Alliance that worked with the Institute under a grant the Trump administration approved, eventually had that funding withdrawn. The EcoHealth Alliance later said that, under the grant, it had enhanced a bat coronavirus so it became potentially more infectious to humans, which the NIH said was an "unexpected result" of the research it had funded that was carried out in partnership with the Wuhan Institute. Nevertheless, the NIH denied it had helped create the virus that sparked the COVID-19 pandemic.

Axios reported that Gaetz was "seriously considering not seeking re-election and possibly leaving Congress early for a job at Newsmax" on March 30, 2021. The same day, The New York Times reported the Justice Department's investigation of Gaetz. According to CNN, a person briefed on the matter said investigators also examined whether Gaetz used campaign money in his relationships with young women for travel and expenses and whether cash and drugs were involved. By April 2, the Justice Department was examining whether Gaetz asked women to recruit others for sex.

In late April, Gaetz fundraised to run his own political ads, claiming that he was under attack by powerful interests such as "big government, big tech, big business, big media" that perceived him as a political threat. A public relations firm hired by Gaetz issued a denial statement regarding The Daily Beast 's reporting on Greenberg's correspondence implicating him and Gaetz.

Social Network

Matt Gaetz is active on various social media platforms, where he engages with constituents and shares his political views.

On November 13, 2024, President-elect Donald Trump announced he would nominate Gaetz to serve as United States attorney general, which some Senate Republicans received poorly. Upon Trump's announcement, Gaetz resigned from the House of Representatives. A week later, he withdrew himself from consideration for the post of attorney general. Though he had already won re-election to the 119th United States Congress, he submitted a letter of resignation prior to the swearing in. Gaetz started hosting The Matt Gaetz Show, a political talk show airing weeknights on One America News Network in January 2025.

Gaetz is seen as a vocal ally of Trump. Politico called Gaetz "one of the most enthusiastic defenders of president Trump on cable news" and a "proud Trump protégé" in April 2018. Aaron Blake of The Washington Post called him one of Congress' "most controversial members", and one who has "unabashedly aligned himself with Trump on basically all things".

During Mueller's testimony to two congressional committees on July 24, 2019, Gaetz told him, "If Russians were lying to Christopher Steele to undermine our confidence in our newly elected president, that would be precisely in your purview because you stated in your opening that the organizing principle was to fully and thoroughly investigate Russian interference. But you weren't interested in whether the Russians interfered through Steele—and if Steele was lying, then you should have charged him with lying like you charged a variety of other people."

On June 1, 2020, during the nationwide George Floyd protests, Gaetz tweeted, "Now that we clearly see antifa as terrorists, can we hunt them down like we do those in the Middle East?" In response, Twitter hid the tweet and labeled it as "[violating] the Twitter Rules about glorifying violence". Gaetz called the label a "badge of honor", accused Twitter of enabling antifa, and again said that "[o]ur government should hunt [Antifa] down".

On December 4, 2020, Gaetz attended an indoor New York Young Republicans Club conference in Jersey City, New Jersey, during a period of surging COVID-19 cases throughout the state and the country. He was seen posing for photos in a crowd of unmasked attendees, prompting New Jersey governor Phil Murphy and Jersey City mayor Steven Fulop to publicly condemn him. Gaetz and other GOP members mocked Democrats and their COVID-19 regulations on social media. Murphy also said state officials were investigating whether the event violated the state's COVID-19 regulations.

Gaetz opposes abortion. On July 23, 2022, he gave a speech at a Student Action Summit gathering in Tampa, Florida, in which he said that overweight or unattractive women were unlikely to become pregnant and mocked them for supporting abortion rights, saying, "They're like 5'2", 350 pounds, and they're like, 'Give me my abortions or I'll get up and march and protest.'" Olivia Julianna, a Texas teenager, tweeted a post mocking Gaetz, who responded with a photo of her that, according to NPR, implied his comments had touched a nerve; she used the incident to raise over $2 million for abortion funds.

By June, the federal investigation had reportedly broadened to include obstruction of justice, relating to Gaetz's phone conversation with a witness. Later in June, ABC News reported that the investigation had engulfed many in the Central Florida political scene and that prosecutors could decide whether to bring charges against Gaetz as early as July. In August, ABC News reported that Greenberg had "provided investigators with years of Venmo and Cash App transactions and thousands of photos and videos, as well as access to personal social media accounts". These include September 2018 text messages between Greenberg and a woman engaging in prostitution, which indicate that a prostitute was arranged for Gaetz and that MDMA may have been proffered. A spokesperson for Gaetz said, "not one woman has come forward to accuse Rep. Gaetz of wrongdoing" and that Gaetz had "addressed the debunked allegations against him" on his new podcast, Firebrand. According to Greenberg, he made the arrangements for Gaetz.

A September 2022 Washington Post article reported that prosecutors had recommended not to charge Gaetz in the sex trafficking investigation, telling Justice Department superiors that a conviction is unlikely in part because of credibility questions about the two central witnesses. In February 2023, the DOJ communicated to the attorneys for Gaetz that they had concluded their investigation and would not be laying charges against him, effectively ending a multiyear probe including allegations of misconduct.

Education

Gaetz earned his Juris Doctor from William & Mary Law School in 2007. This education has been instrumental in his career as a lawyer and politician.

The son of prominent Florida politician Don Gaetz and grandson of North Dakota politician Jerry Gaetz, Gaetz was raised in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. After graduating from William & Mary Law School, he briefly worked in private practice before running for state representative. He served in the Florida House of Representatives from 2010 until 2016, and received national attention for defending Florida's "stand-your-ground law". In 2016, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, and was re-elected in 2018, 2020, 2022, and 2024.

He grew up in a conservative and religious family near Fort Walton Beach, and graduated from Niceville High School. He graduated from Florida State University in 2003 with a Bachelor of Science in interdisciplinary sciences. While at FSU, he was involved in the World Affairs Program Student Government Association and was a member of the Burning Spear Society. He graduated from the William & Mary Law School in 2007 with a Juris Doctor. Gaetz was admitted to the Florida Bar on February 6, 2008.

After Ohio congressman Jim Jordan denied that he was aware of the sexual abuse of Ohio State University wrestlers during the period when Jordan was a coach there, Gaetz said that the allegations came from people in the "deep state" and were intended to reduce the credibility of Jordan's criticism of Mueller's investigation of the Trump campaign and Russia.

In early March 2020, Gaetz wore a gas mask during a House debate on funds to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. He argued that wearing the gas mask was not an act of mockery but a way of "demonstrating his concern". Several journalists characterized the decision as a stunt. A few days later, on March 9, Gaetz's office reported that he had been in contact with a Conservative Political Action Conference attendee who tested positive for COVID-19. As a result, Gaetz was placed under self-quarantine for 14 days. On March 10, he said his test was negative, but that he would stay under self-quarantine until the 14-day period ended on March 12.

In 2024, Gaetz condemned schools for promoting what he described as "degenerate LGBT and anti-White propaganda" as he introduced his "National Prayer In School Act".

Investigators believe that Greenberg met women through a website for sex and introduced them to Gaetz, who also had sex with them. Evidence including mobile payment receipts reportedly suggesting Gaetz had illegally exchanged money for sex, such as May 2018 Venmo transaction records showing Gaetz sending $900 (with a memo referring to a woman) to Greenberg, who then relayed the money (with the memos "tuition" and "school") to three women, one of whom was 18. Joseph Ellicott, an associate of both Gaetz and Greenberg, pleaded guilty in January 2022 to two charges related to this investigation and is also cooperating with authorities.

Gaetz was arrested for driving under the influence as he was driving back from a nightclub on Okaloosa Island, Florida, in 2008. Police recorded him driving 48 mph in a 35 mph zone and noted that he showed physical signs of intoxication. Gaetz initially denied that he had drunk alcohol, but later admitted to drinking two beers. He failed an eye test twice, then declined field sobriety tests. After Gaetz was arrested, he refused to take a breathalyzer test.

Shortly after Gaetz's case was referred to state attorney Steve Meadows, Gaetz's driving license was reinstated. Though Florida law requires a year's suspension when a driver refuses a breathalyzer test, Gaetz's suspension was less than a year. His refusal also did not lead to a criminal prosecution, during which it could have been used against him. A field officer for the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles declared there was no evidence that Gaetz refused a breathalyzer test, despite the arresting police officer having documented it in an affidavit and the arrest report and Gaetz's own attorney also having documented it, too. Gaetz's attorney also argued that an unnamed witness who knew Gaetz "observed no indication of impairment". The charges against Gaetz were dismissed.

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