Few allies can remain in Donald Trump’s good graces forever.
Just ask his former lawyer and critic Michael Cohen; or his first-term Vice President Mike Pence, targeted by members of the January 6 crowd that called for his hanging; or the president’s “first friend,” Elon Musk, with whom Trump engaged in a very public online flamewar this summer over Jeffrey Epstein.
For a while, it seemed like far-right Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene would be the one to buck the trend, but now it looks like her time has come too.
The president has branded Greene, once one of his fiercest allies in Washington, DC, as a “traitor.” He said he is open to a primary challenger against the Georgia Republican.
So where did it all go wrong?
How Trump Lost Greene to Epstein
The most direct cause of the split is the Epstein scandal.
Greene is among several Republican members of Congress who have backed an effort to force the government to release more files on the late sex offender, a longtime former friend of the president who died in prison while awaiting trial on charges that he trafficked young girls. The House will vote on the proposal next week.
Worse, in a Republican party that almost never openly criticizes Trump, Greene accused Trump of a “massive miscalculation” in his continued dismissal of the scandal and Republicans pushing for more information.
“To be completely honest with you, it’s something I don’t understand,” the MAGA representative told CBS, arguing that releasing more Epstein information into the hands of federal law enforcement sends a strong message that the government “will not protect the predators,” even if they are connected to wealthy and influential people.
The president, who denies involvement in any misconduct related to Epstein, has called Republicans pursuing the Epstein scandal “stupid” and accused them of distracting from the Republican Party’s achievements.
Greene accuses Trump of abandoning “America First.”
But tension between Greene and Trump’s inner circle has been mounting for months.
Greene, once better known for spouting conspiracy theories and demonizing her progressive colleagues as she entered Congress in 2021, has recently turned her considerable bully pulpit on large parts of the Republican agenda.
She has put pressure on the Republican Party across the board, targeting continued reluctance to reduce health care costs.
During the recent government shutdown, she broke with her party and joined Democratic members calling for action to preserve expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies, though she was ultimately ignored.
She has also accused the president of abandoning Trump’s “America First” agenda by focusing too much on foreign intervention, leading him to emerge as an outspoken critic of bipartisan support for Israel’s war effort in Gaza and become one of the few U.S. lawmakers from both parties to agree with a consensus among human rights groups and a United Nations commission that has labeled the conflict a genocide.
Last year, she made a failed attempt to oust her former ally Mike Johnson as speaker of the House of Representatives, and she accused top Republicans of fostering an environment in which powerful women in the party are sidelined, a charge she filed against the president on Saturday amid her ongoing feud.
“Republicans don’t get support from women and this right here is a perfect example of why,” she says wrote on
The rise of Trump’s ‘future star’
The weekend blowout is a dramatic change from Greene’s meteoric rise in the MAGA world.
Greene said she was inspired to seek office because of Trump, and the president praised her as a “future Republican star” and “real winner” after she won her first primary in 2020.
Once she took office, the two started working one after the other. She wore a “Trump-won” mask on the floor of the House of Representatives at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic as she unleashed a months-long campaign against vaccination efforts and public health guidelines.
Trump defended Greene after her colleagues sought to fire her from committee assignments over inflammatory past comments, while she supported the president as he and his allies in Congress tried to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election based on baseless conspiracy theories that the results were rigged against him.
Greene would be the first of Georgia’s congressional delegation to endorse Trump for re-election in 2022, a time when the president’s political stocks were at a low ebb after a brutal round of impeachment trials and committee investigations examining in detail how he nearly overturned a fair election.
The rift between Greene and Trump is certainly notable, but those who oppose the president have a habit of burning brightly and then fading into irrelevance within the party.
Former Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney, who supported Trump’s second impeachment and helped lead the Jan. 6 committee, lost her 2022 primary and subsequently decided to support Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.
Pence is now a fringe figure in the party, while Musk — despite a brief handshake with Trump in September at the funeral of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk — is no longer the ubiquitous figure he was in Washington during the early months of the second Trump administration.
Greene may have provoked Trump’s ire, but some in the Republican camp continue to support the Georgia representative.
“I respect President Trump, but I stand with my congressman,” Emory Roy, Georgia-based activist for the conservative group Turning Point Action wrote on X, calling Greene “an America First fighter in DC.”
Jim Tully, chairman of the local Republican Party in the district Greene represents, wrote on X that the congressman has the “unwavering support” of the district.
“Her willingness to speak candidly on behalf of her constituents, even under political pressure, underlines her courage and loyalty to her oath,” he added.
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