One of President-elect Donald Trump's first announced nominees to his incoming Cabine was former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) to be the next Attorney General, though the ex-congressman ultimately withdrew himself from consideration amid mounting controversy and scandal.

It has now been reported that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) played a key role in that development, as he is said to have privately advised Trump that Gaetz had little chance of being approved for the consequential AG position, according to the New York Post.

Following the withdrawal of Gaetz's nomination, Trump replaced him with former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is widely expected to be confirmed by the incoming Republican-led Senate without any trouble.

Ted Cruz convinced Trump that Gaetz had no shot

Politico's Playbook reported on Wednesday that shortly before ex-Rep. Gaetz ended his quest to be the next attorney general, Sen. Cruz quietly informed the Trump transition team that the nominee lacked sufficient support to be confirmed by the Senate.

Cruz, who himself reportedly didn't support Gaetz, warned the president-elect that the former congressman didn't have the necessary votes, which allegedly prompted Trump to tell Gaetz in a phone call the next day, "I don’t think you’ve got a path."

Later that same day, Gaetz posted on his personal X account about his meetings with senators and announced, "While the momentum was strong, it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition."

"There is no time to waste on a needlessly protracted Washington scuffle, thus I'll be withdrawing my name from consideration to serve as Attorney General. Trump's DOJ must be in place and ready on Day 1," he added along with an expression of his continued support for Trump and his still-developing incoming administration.

Gaetz had been informed that he lacked a path to confirmation

The Politico report, while not a direct confirmation, bears remarkable similarities to a separate New York Post report on the day that Gaetz withdrew himself from consideration that cited unnamed sources as stating that both the ex-congressman and president-elect were informed that he lacked the votes to be confirmed as the next attorney general.

"He didn’t have the votes and realized it," one anonymous source told the Post of Gaetz, even as another unnamed source said that Gaetz and Trump's team had been "very confident" that he could be confirmed just a few days prior.

Yet, a third anonymous source told the outlet that Gaetz had been shown the results of a private whip count of all GOP senators which proved without much question that he had "no path to confirmation."

The Post report at that time said that Gaetz decided on his own to withdraw himself from consideration rather than have his name publicly pulled by Trump, though the Politico report would seem to suggest that Gaetz was encouraged to make that move on his own accord by Trump following the frank conversation with Sen. Cruz about the impossibility of his confirmation.

Trump team's shifting tactics

Notably, the Politico report went on to suggest that the ousting of Gaetz as the AG nominee by way of a preemptive Senate rejection before hearings were held may be the only such instance of President-elect Trump acquiescing to the objections of GOP senators to his picks.

Team Trump has seemingly altered their strategy to now apply public pressure to certain senators who may be hesitant about some of his nominees, whereas they had initially seemed content to remain relatively quiet while the process played out.

It remains to be seen if the more confrontational tactic, which includes public callouts and threats of primary challengers, will work to compel senators to vote to confirm his appointees or whether it will waste what limited goodwill and political capital Trump has that will be needed later when it comes time to legislatively pass his policy agenda.