Matt Gaetz charging $500 to make bespoke fan videos on Cameo website

The Florida Republican Matt Gaetz has made his first big move since withdrawing from consideration to be Donald Trump’s attorney general – by starting an account on Cameo, the website that lets ordinary people pay for video messages from celebrities, dubious or otherwise.

Related: How Trump’s nomination of Matt Gaetz unravelled in just eight days

The news website Semafor first reported the move on Friday. The revelation came a day after Gaetz withdrew from the confirmation process, under fire over a House ethics committee investigation of allegations of misconduct including allegedly paying an underage girl for sex – all of which Gaetz vehemently denies.

“I served in Congress,” the page said, the past tense pointing to Gaetz’s resignation last week, pre-empting release of the ethics report, and announcement on Friday that he would not seek to return next year.

“Trump nominated me to be US attorney general (that didn’t work out),” the page said. “Once I fired the House speaker.”

That was a reference to events in October last year, when Gaetz triggered the historic removal of Kevin McCarthy, a fellow Republican and the first speaker ever ejected by his own party. Ostensibly, Gaetz was angered by McCarthy’s position on spending issues and keeping the government open. Really, McCarthy charged, Gaetz was incensed by the speaker’s refusal to quash the ethics investigation.

Cameo offers users a chance to pay for messages to mark holidays, say happy birthday, send a pep talk, get advice, ask a question or, perhaps appealing to fans of Gaetz, to “roast someone” with pointed abuse.

Gaetz himself has been the target of plenty of pointed abuse, not least over his antics in Congress. In January 2023, months before Gaetz moved against McCarthy, Brendan Buck, a Republican aide turned commentator, said Gaetz “should set up a Cameo where for $50 he’ll vote for you for speaker of the House”.

On Friday, Gaetz began by charging $250 a video but soon raised that price to $500. One social media user noted that Gaetz was thus charging “about the same rate as George Santos” – the serial fabulist, admitted fraudster and elected Republican who turned to Cameo amid the scandal that saw him expelled from Congress last year.

Other disgraced political figures who have turned to Cameo include Rod Blagojevich, the former Illinois governor who was jailed for trying to sell Barack Obama’s US Senate seat, a sentence commuted by Trump, and Rudy Giuliani, the New York mayor turned Trump attorney now facing financial and legal ruin.

A spokesperson for Gaetz did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Cameo said users would “have the chance to customize” their $500 request for Gaetz, “like asking [him] to mention inside jokes, share words of wisdom, or work in their signature catchphrases.

“Don’t be afraid to get creative with your request, especially for celebrations like weddings, retirements, or bachelor and bachelorette parties that call for a good laugh.”