Matt Gaetz confirmed on Tuesday that a viral TikTok video showing his mother arguing with him via text about Donald Trump’s strikes on Iran is real, adding that a person sitting behind him on a recent flight “recorded me without my knowledge.”
The messages from the former congressman’s mother Victoria Gaetz, meanwhile, showed her urging her son not to publicly criticize the president on the Iranian conflict because “MAGA will turn on you” and Trump will be incredibly incensed.
“The president has been a very good friend to you. He hates betrayal. Be smart, not stubborn,” Mrs. Gaetz texted.
While there has been a bitter MAGA divide between hawkish Republicans and “America First” isolationists over the United States joining Israel’s war with Iran, Gaetz – a fierce Trump ally who was briefly the president’s choice for attorney general – has attempted to thread the needle in recent days.
Despite being a vocal opponent of foreign intervention and “forever wars” abroad, Gaetz praised the president’s airstrikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities over the weekend, which Trump hyped as an overwhelming success while claiming it completely obliterated Tehran’s nuclear program. (Experts, meanwhile, have questioned the effectiveness of the bombing raid and suggested most of Iran’s enriched uranium was unharmed.)
“President Trump basically wants this to be like the Solimani strike — one and done,” Gaetz tweeted, likening “Operation Midnight Hammer” to the assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani during Trump’s first term. “No regime change war. Trump the Peacemaker!”
On Sunday, however, Gaetz expressed skepticism about the possibility of America getting involved in a broader mission in Iran, especially if it involved overthrowing the government.
“Just remember: every regime change war has been extremely popular at the start. But the historical trajectory isn’t good,” he posted, adding: “There will always be another Iranian mountain to bomb for the neocons.”
While the president was hyping a supposed ceasefire between Iran and Israel, which Trump has already angrily berated Iran and Israel for violating, Gaetz – who now anchors a primetime show for pro-Trump network One America News – was filmed on a plane by TikTok “momfluencer” Tidesofmarch scrolling through a lengthy text message chain on his phone.
The Independent has reached out to the person behind the Tidesofmarch account for comment.
Gaetz’s texts with his mother came across clearly in the TikToker’s videos due to the large font and the ex-congressman holding his phone in a clear line of sight to anyone sitting behind him. It was also clear that he was messaging Victoria Gaetz as the contact was named “Mom.”
Meanwhile, the back-and-forth showed Mrs. Gaetz scolding her son for not fully backing the president’s Iranian policies, worrying that it could spell trouble for his nascent gig at OAN.
“Don’t be criticizing the President or his actions. He’s trying to keep us safe. That’s his job. MAGA will turn on you. You will lose viewership. Your days in congress are over. Practice of law? Let’s not mess up the media gig,” she wrote. “The president has been a very good friend to you. He hates betrayal. Be smart, not stubborn.”
In response, Gaetz insisted he was “trying to guide him, not criticize him,” adding: “But i’ve never been freer to share my views - and I’ll continue to do so.”
After Gaetz said that he thinks “about the people who cheerled the Iraq war” because they liked President George W. Bush, claiming that they now “have blood on their hands,” his mother once again warned him about crossing Trump publicly.
“Don’t guide him in the public square. He has intelligence and briefing[s] you are not [privy] to,” she texted.
The exchange appeared to grow more heated at one point when Gaetz noted that he’d felt “deep shame that I failed” to sway the president personally despite talking to him “constantly,” prompting his mother to wonder: “How many times do you want to hit the wall?”“I'm a happily married man with a son on the way, two penthouse condos, a 1:1 real estate asset to debt ratio,” he replied. “And $500k in my bank account cash. I guess I’ll keep hitting it till I die.”
At one point, Mrs. Gaetz claimed that Iran “would have gotten nuclear weapons and delivery systems” if left “unchecked” because no other president would stop them, leading the OAN host to push back and insist Tehran wasn’t close to developing a bomb.
“Iran has been 3 months away from a nuke since 1992. They had surrendered their ICBM program in 2003. They have done no R&D on re-entry capability. These are facts,” he stated. “By your logic, should we bomb North Korea? Also, wasn’t saddam on his way to getting nukes? How did that work out?”
After his mother shot back that he identified more with Barack Obama’s presidency, Gaetz argued that “Obama doubled down on the Afghanistan war” and was “way more pro-war than” Trump.
“Trump hopes this is like Solimani[sic]. So do I. But there is a chance it isn’t,” he continued, seemingly recycling some of his social media posts about the raid, prompting Mrs. Gaetz to reply: “This is Grump’s [sic] Reagan moment. I hope it works out. I feel safer.”
“Remember. These wars are always popular at first. But history turns,” the former congressman concluded.
After the TikTok videos had gone viral on Tuesday, Gaetz acknowledged that the texts were accurate while noting that they constituted an invasion of privacy. At the same time, he appeared to take it all in stride.
“Apparently someone sitting behind me on a flight recorded me without my knowledge,” he posted on Tuesday. “They found me texting my mother about news of the day, family finances, and working on my laptop. Please let this be a reminder to everyone to CALL YOUR MOTHER! (and maybe get a screen protector).”
The former lawmaker also joked with several other X users about the video. After The Bulwark editor Sam Stein tweeted that there’s “nothing wrong with texting mom” but he’s “worried about the font size on your phone,” Gaetz quipped that it’s now known that his “eyesight has gotten very poor in recent years.”
When asked for comment by The Independent, Gaetz merely replied: “My tweets speak for themselves.”
