MAGA Rift Grows As Trump Feuds With Marjorie Taylor Greene Before Key Midterm Elections

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — When President Donald Trump addressed Congress earlier this yr, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was there holding an American flag and sporting a purple baseball cap that mentioned “Trump was proper about every little thing.”

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 didn’t final the yr. 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 yr’s midterm elections.

In current weeks, Greene has escalated her criticism of Trump’s give attention to overseas coverage over what she has mentioned needs to be an agenda that concentrates on People, in addition to his reluctance to launch extra paperwork involving the Jeffrey Epstein case. On Friday, the Republican president mentioned he would assist a main problem in opposition to 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 Drive One to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Seaside, 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 over time, however Greene isn’t backing down. She even recommended that she, not Trump, stands out as the true champion of the “America First” agenda.

“I consider within the American folks greater than I consider in any chief or political occasion and the American folks deserve so significantly better than how they’ve been handled by either side of the aisle,” she wrote in her personal submit Saturday.

She additionally mentioned she is apprehensive about her security as a result of “threats in opposition to me are being fueled and egged on by probably the most highly effective man on the planet.”

Greene isn’t the primary lawmaker to earn Trump’s anger. Their cut up, nevertheless, is probably the most notable of his second time period. She has been intently tied to him since 2020, when she began her political career in Georgia’s rural northwest.

Backing the QAnon conspiracy concept, showing with white supremacists and brandishing assault rifles, Greene was opposed by occasion leaders however supported by Trump. He known as her a “future Republican Star” and “an actual WINNER!”

Jason Shepherd, a former Republican official in Georgia who left the occasion over disagreements with Trump supporters, mentioned 2020 was “an ideal storm of political bizarreness” throughout upheaval attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic. Georgia was one of many intently contested states the place Trump disputed his loss to Democrat Joe Biden, even pressuring Georgia’s secretary of state to “find” enough votes to overturn the outcomes.

Shepherd, a lawyer and political science professor who lives in Greene’s district, mentioned “we by no means know what place Marjorie Taylor Greene goes to pop up with subsequent.”

“I don’t know if she has any core convictions, aside from what’s going to assist her probably the most,” he mentioned.

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, attack on the U.S. Capitol. She grew to become 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 pressure appeared to start earlier this yr when Greene was exploring a possible 2026 marketing campaign in opposition to Jon Ossoff, one in every of Georgia’s two Democratic senators. Trump mentioned he despatched Greene a ballot displaying that she “didn’t have an opportunity.” She ultimately passed 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.

Greene has not too long ago set a unique, extra conciliatory tone.

She went on ABC’s “The View,” a daytime speak present thought-about a secure area for Democrats, to say “that folks with highly effective voices,” particularly girls, “have to pave a brand new path.”

The rhetoric sparked hypothesis that Greene is likely to be contemplating a run for president herself, which was later denied by her boyfriend, Brian Glenn, a conservative reporter identified for his pleasant questioning of Trump.

Greene additionally has been criticizing Trump, notably his work with different nations. She informed Tucker Carlson final month that the administration’s support for Argentina was “a punch within the intestine” at a time when People are offended about costs for on a regular basis wants.

Greene is one in every of a handful of Republicans supporting an effort to pressure the Justice Division to release more documents involving Epstein, a convicted intercourse offender who was related to a number of the nation’s strongest folks. Trump has struggled to cease questions on his own links 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 manner.”

Shawn Harris, a retired Military common and Democrat who misplaced to Greene in 2024, is working in opposition to her once more in 2026. He mentioned Greene’s shift is a part of her attention-seeking conduct.

“Marjorie all the time picks fights with folks to remain within the information and it’s lastly President Trump’s flip,” Harris wrote in a textual content message. “However neither of them has performed a single factor for the hardworking folks right here in northwest Georgia. The best way issues are going currently, it’s not clear his endorsement would assist anybody.”

It’s widespread for political coalitions to fray over time, particularly when presidents are serving their second time period and members of their occasion begin pondering a future with out them on the helm.

Trump has principally prevented that to this point. He has flirted with the opportunity of running for a third term, regardless of the constitutional prohibition on extending his time in workplace, and exerted ironclad influence over the Republican-controlled Congress.

He faces a vital political check subsequent yr 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 occasion’s probabilities by pressuring states to redraw congressional districts to learn 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 primary challenge, 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 had been leaping into the race, some are contemplating it.

State Sen. Colton Moore, a Republican from the area who beforehand floated a run in opposition to Ossoff, criticized Greene. “I’m extra annoyed together with her than President Trump and she or he doesn’t care,” he mentioned.

On Saturday, he complained about getting the “runaround” any time he known as her workplace in search of assist. He additionally praised Trump’s dealing with of the financial system.

“I even have a passport full of nations from throughout the globe I’ve visited within the final yr,” he mentioned. “All worse than U.S.”

Requested if he would problem Greene, Moore mentioned in a textual content that “I’ve just one goal in life … to place America First.”

Amy reported from Atlanta.