Matt Gaetz withdrawing his nomination for attorney general is a big blow for the Trump transition – this was considered as one of their most important picks.

Donald Trump is obsessed with the Department of Justice – he believes that it pursued him and that it conducted witch hunts against him for eight years, including the four years he was in power the first time – even though his own nominees were in charge of the department during his first term.

So this nomination was enormously important, very high profile.

Gaetz’s withdrawal is a huge blow, but it is an illustration of the ways power is separated in this country between the presidency, the courts and Congress. The reality is that if you as president don’t have enough support among your own people in Congress, you can’t get your way – even if your party controls all those levers.

In the Senate, they pride themselves on a certain degree of independence. I think some might question that degree of independence nowadays, given Donald Trump’s capture of the Republican Party – nicknamed the Grand Old Party. But there does seem to have been a handful of people there who were uncertain about the Matt Gaetz pick – and that’s all it takes to throw the whole thing into doubt.