Marc A. Caputo reports:

Donald Trump giveth. And he taketh away.

Eight days after making the snap decision to nominate Matt Gaetz to be the nation’s next attorney general, Trump phoned him Thursday morning to tell him he wouldn’t get confirmed, according to a source briefed on the conversation. The president-elect explained that Republican senators were too troubled by the sex scandals and investigations surrounding Gaetz and that the constant and salacious distractions had doomed him.

“You don’t have the votes,” Trump said, according to the source. “These senators aren’t moving.”

Another source familiar with the conversation between Trump and Gaetz said Gaetz had acknowledged he had between four and six Republican votes against him. He could only lose three.

“The writing was on the wall. Gaetz fell on his sword,” the source said, calling the decision a mutually understood acceptance of political reality.

Gaetz had repeatedly told others he would stay in the hunt for the nomination unless Trump signaled it had become a distraction. That signal came Thursday.

The conversation came after Trump and the former Florida congressman made multiple calls to lawmakers; and after current Ohio Senator and Vice President-elect JD Vance accompanied Gaetz to the Hill to lobby Senate Judiciary Committee members.

Dumping Gaetz constituted a remarkable about face for Trump, who had not only been adamant that Gaetz would be his attorney general but who had floated the possibility of using a recess appointment to install him. And it signified an awareness by Trump that, though he won big, fighting such pointed battles with his own party wasn’t worth the sacrifice of time. [Continue reading…]