From conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in Health to wrestling boss Linda McMahon in Education, including Elon Musk's new ministry, Donald Trump has already chosen a wide range of loyalists to surround him. Among them was until now the controversial Matt Gaetz, tipped to be appointed Minister of Justice by the next President of the United States.
A choice criticized even within the Republicans, widely mocked by American TV presenters. Matt Gaetz has resigned from his post while under investigation for sexual misconduct and illegal drug use. Her replacement, chosen at short notice by Donald Trump, comes from Florida like him: former Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Fierce opposition to Democrats and controversial remarks
“I have the honor to announce that former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi will be our next Minister of Justice”wrote Donald Trump on his own social network Truth Social, a few hours after Matt Gaetz's withdrawal.
Pam Bondi is a longtime Trumpist, obviously. A member of the Republican Party, this 59-year-old woman began her career by being propelled from being a great unknown to the bar to Attorney General of Florida from 2011 to 2019; she is the first woman elected to this position. She already assiduously frequents the sets of Fox News, a TV channel committed to the cause of Donald Trump. Over the years, she opposed Obamacare, Barack Obama's health care law, and led chants of “Lock her up!” (lock her up) against Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Pam Bondi stands out for her controversial comments after two shootings in her own state. In 2016, she claimed in the media to oppose same-sex marriage in the state of Florida when she was invited to comment on the shooting which had just left 50 dead in an LGBT nightclub in Orlando. Two years later, notes The Guardian, after 17 students and staff members were shot dead by a student at a Florida high school, she called for the death penalty for the shooter as well as raising the minimum age to buy a gun from 18 to 21 years old.
In the fold of Donald Trump for more than 10 years
Pam Bondi has been in Donald Trump's political orbit for a long time. In 2016, on the eve of the Republican primaries in Florida, she ardently supported the real estate mogul at a rally, to the detriment of her own state's candidate, Marco Rubio. The same year, she was accused by the AP news agency of having personally asked Donald Trump for a donation of $25,000 for his own campaign as prosecutor; however, at the same time, Pam Bondi's office is in charge of a fraud case targeting Trump University. The questionable payment draws strong criticism.
In 2019, she joined the lawyers defending the billionaire in his Senate impeachment trial, and she made his case several times on Fox News. She will support him even in his most recent affairs, like that of Stormy Daniels.
Already mentioned among the candidates for the Trump administration during the latter's first term, Pam Bondi will finally chair from 2024 the America First Policy Institute, a think tank made up of former members of the Trumpist presidency, to prepare a potential second Republican mandate. She who dreamed of the White House could therefore access it in two months, as Minister of Justice. “Pam will refocus the Department of Justice on its primary purpose of fighting crime and restoring safety to America.” assured the new American president.
Related News :