US Consultant Marjorie Taylor Greene (R) speaks alongside former US President and 2024 presidential hopeful Donald Trump at a marketing campaign occasion in Rome, Georgia, on March 9, 2024.
Elijah Nouvelage | AFP | Getty Photos
When President Donald Trump addressed Congress earlier this 12 months, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was there holding an American flag and carrying a purple baseball cap that stated “Trump was proper about all the things.”
After the speech, he gave her a kiss and she or he beamed. Trump was again in energy and Greene was positioned to be one in every of his most ardent political foot troopers with Republicans controlling all levers of energy in Washington.
Their alliance did not final the 12 months. Now it has fractured in an explosive feud that might foreshadow extra rifts inside Trump’s “Make America Nice Once more” motion earlier than subsequent 12 months’s midterm elections.
In current weeks, Greene has escalated her criticism of Trump’s concentrate on international coverage over what she has stated ought to be an agenda that concentrates on Individuals, in addition to his reluctance to launch extra paperwork involving the Jeffrey Epstein case. On Friday, the Republican president stated he would assist a major problem towards the Georgia congresswoman.
“All I see ‘Wacky’ Marjorie do is COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN!” Trump wrote on his social media platform as his motorcade whisked him from Air Power One to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Seashore, Florida.
On Saturday, Trump examined out a brand new nickname for her, calling her “Marjorie Taylor Brown” as a result of “Inexperienced grass turns Brown when it begins to ROT!”
Trump has efficiently stamped out different challenges to his energy through the years, however Greene isn’t backing down. She even urged that she, not Trump, could be the true champion of the “America First” agenda.
“I imagine within the American individuals greater than I imagine in any chief or political celebration and the American individuals deserve so significantly better than how they’ve been handled by each side of the aisle,” she wrote in her personal publish Saturday.
She additionally stated she is fearful about her security as a result of “threats towards me are being fueled and egged on by essentially the most highly effective man on the planet.”
Trump backed Greene from the beginning
Greene isn’t the primary lawmaker to earn Trump’s anger. Their cut up, nevertheless, is essentially the most notable of his second time period. She has been carefully tied to him since 2020, when she started her political profession in Georgia’s rural northwest.
Backing the QAnon conspiracy idea, showing with white supremacists and brandishing assault rifles, Greene was opposed by celebration leaders however supported by Trump. He known as her a “future Republican Star” and “an actual WINNER!”
Jason Shepherd, a Republican in Georgia who resigned from celebration workplace over disagreements with Trump supporters, stated 2020 was “an ideal storm of political bizarreness” throughout upheaval brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Georgia was one of many carefully contested states the place Trump disputed his loss to Democrat Joe Biden, even pressuring Georgia’s secretary of state to “discover” sufficient votes to overturn the outcomes.
Shepherd, a lawyer and political science professor who lives in Greene’s district, stated “we by no means know what place Marjorie Taylor Greene goes to pop up with subsequent.”
“I do not know if she has any core convictions, aside from what is going to assist her essentially the most,” he stated.
Greene began her congressional tenure as Trump was leaving the White Home, and she or he supported the election lies that fueled the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol. She turned a media fixture as a goal of liberal scorn and a promoter of Trump-style conservatism, and was a loyal lieutenant in his comeback marketing campaign in 2024.
However rigidity appeared to start earlier this 12 months when Greene was exploring a possible 2026 marketing campaign towards Jon Ossoff, one in every of Georgia’s two Democratic senators. Trump stated he despatched Greene a ballot exhibiting that she “did not have an opportunity.” She finally handed on the race and later declined to run for Georgia governor whereas attacking a political “good ole boy” system that she accused of endangering Republican management of the state.
A brand new Greene?
Greene has just lately set a distinct, extra conciliatory tone.
She went on ABC’s “The View,” a daytime speak present thought of a protected area for Democrats, to say “that folks with highly effective voices,” particularly ladies, “must pave a brand new path.”
The rhetoric sparked hypothesis that Greene could be contemplating a run for president herself, which was later denied by her boyfriend, Brian Glenn, a conservative reporter recognized for his pleasant questioning of Trump.
Greene additionally has been criticizing Trump, notably his work with different international locations. She instructed Tucker Carlson final month that the administration’s assist for Argentina was “a punch within the intestine” at a time when Individuals are indignant about costs for on a regular basis wants.
Greene is one in every of a handful of Republicans supporting an effort to power the Justice Division to launch extra paperwork involving Epstein, a convicted intercourse offender who was linked to a number of the nation’s strongest individuals. Trump has struggled to cease questions on his personal hyperlinks to Epstein, who was discovered useless in his jail cell in 2019 in what authorities have dominated was a suicide.
Trump has dismissed Greene’s criticism, telling reporters on Monday that “she’s misplaced her means.”
Shawn Harris, a retired Military basic and Democrat who misplaced to Greene in 2024, is working towards her once more in 2026. He stated Greene’s shift is a part of her attention-seeking conduct.
“Marjorie all the time picks fights with individuals to remain within the information and it is lastly President Trump’s flip,” Harris wrote in a textual content message. “However neither of them has carried out a single factor for the hardworking individuals right here in northwest Georgia. The best way issues are going these days, it isn’t clear his endorsement would assist anybody.”
Trump battles Democrats and GOP in midterms
It’s normal for political coalitions to fray over time, particularly when presidents are serving their second time period and members of their celebration begin pondering a future with out them on the helm.
Trump has largely averted that to this point. He has flirted with the opportunity of working for a 3rd time period, regardless of the constitutional prohibition on extending his time in workplace, and exerted ironclad affect over the Republican-controlled Congress.
He faces an important political check subsequent 12 months as Democrats attempt to retake management of the Home, which might empower them to dam laws and launch investigations of his administration.
The president has been making an attempt to enhance his celebration’s probabilities by pressuring states to redraw congressional districts to profit Republicans, however he is also making an attempt to purge lawmakers whom he considers disloyal. Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky is already the goal of a Trump-backed major problem, and Greene could possibly be the following if she and the president don’t reconcile, as has often occurred after Trump falls out with allies.
Though nobody instantly introduced they have been leaping into the race, some are contemplating it.
State Sen. Colton Moore, a Republican from the area who beforehand floated a run towards Ossoff, criticized Greene. “I am extra pissed off together with her than President Trump and she or he would not care,” he stated.
On Saturday, he complained about getting the “runaround” any time he known as her workplace looking for assist. He additionally praised Trump’s dealing with of the economic system.
“I even have a passport full of nations from throughout the globe I’ve visited within the final 12 months,” he stated. “All worse than U.S.”
Requested if he would problem Greene, Moore stated in a textual content that “I’ve just one goal in life … to place America First.”