Fake Post Claims Gaetz Said He 'Almost Never' Dated Teens After AG Nomination

In November 2024, the day after President-elect Donald Trump nominated former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz to oversee the Department of Justice as U.S. attorney general, an account on X posted an apparent screen capture of a post attributed to Gaetz. Under one interpretation, that post seemed to say he'd "almost never" broken a rule according to which it was appropriate for a man to date a person no younger than half his age, minus seven years (in his case, teenagers) (archived):

Matt Gaetz 
@mattgaetz

Being nominated to head the DOJ [U.S. Department of Justice] is such sweet revenge after they came after me for "sex trafficking." The general wisdom concerning age gap dating is to halve one's age and subtract seven. I'm 42 and almost never betrayed this general maxim over the last 10 years.

The X post, which appeared on the social network on Nov. 14, 2024, at 9:57 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST), had amassed 56,500 views and 2,100 likes as of this writing. The supposed screen capture was dated Nov. 13, 2024, at 12:37 with no precision as to whether it was a.m. or p.m., but presumably moments after Gaetz was nominated.

Some X users reacted as if the text on the image were real. "Gaetz said he 'almost never' ignored that maxim," one said. "It only takes having sex with a minor once to be guilty of statutory rape."

However, the screen capture was fake. In fact, it first appeared as a Reddit post on Nov. 14, 2024, at 11:30 a.m.:

(Reddit/ToiletPaperUSA)

That post appeared on a subreddit known as ToiletPaperUSA, which according to its description was "dedicated to the mockery of TPUSA, and conservative pseudo-intellectuals in general, from a leftist perspective" (emphasis theirs). TPUSA is a reference to Turning Point USA, a lobbying group dedicated to promoting conservative politics on high school and university campuses. 

The Reddit post appeared with the "Fake News" flair, an indication that "the post is fake and most likely satire," according to an automated post by the subreddit. The rules of the subreddit stipulated that all fake news must be marked as such:

Fake (i.e., doctored, simulated, etc.) tweets must be flaired as FAKE NEWS which will trigger a top comment that also announces that the post is fake, so it needs to be flaired upon posting to trigger that comment.

It is true, however, that Gaetz once suggested on X — then Twitter — in a retweet that his state, Florida, should "change its welcome signs" to the phrase, "There's no age that you can't be be [sic] sexy" (archived):

Gaetz was also investigated by both the department he was now poised to lead — pending confirmation by the U.S. Senate — and by the House Ethics Committee on allegations that he had sex with a minor, and that he had knowledge she was paid for this.