An alliance between Donald Trump and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has dramatically fractured, escalating into an explosive feud that could signal deeper rifts within his ‘Make America Great Again’ movement ahead of next year’s midterm elections.
Earlier this year, Greene was a staunch supporter, holding an American flag and sporting a red baseball cap emblazoned with “Trump was right about everything” during a congressional address. She received a kiss from Trump after his speech, positioning herself as a key political ally.
Their unity proved short-lived. Greene recently intensified criticism of Trump’s foreign policy focus, advocating for an agenda centred on American domestic concerns, as well as his reluctance to release the Jeffrey Epstein files.
On Friday, Trump declared support for a primary challenge against the Georgia congresswoman. “All I see ‘Wacky’ Marjorie do is COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN!” he wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.
The dispute escalated on Saturday when Trump unveiled a new moniker: “Marjorie Taylor Brown,” saying “Green grass turns Brown when it begins to ROT!”
Undeterred, Greene refused to back down, suggesting she, not Trump, embodies the true ‘America First’ agenda.
“I believe in the American people more than I believe in any leader or political party,’ she posted, also voicing concerns for her safety from ‘threats…fueled…by the most powerful man in the world.”
Greene is not the first lawmaker to earn Trump’s anger. Their split, however, is the most notable of his second term. She has been closely tied to him since 2020, when she began her political career in Georgia’s rural northwest.
Backing the QAnon conspiracy theory, appearing with white supremacists and brandishing assault rifles, Greene was opposed by party leaders but supported by Trump. He called her a “future Republican Star” and “a real WINNER!”
Jason Shepherd, a Republican in Georgia who resigned from party office over disagreements with Trump supporters, said 2020 was “a perfect storm of political bizarreness” during upheaval caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Georgia was one of the closely contested states where Trump disputed his loss to Democrat Joe Biden, even pressuring Georgia’s secretary of state to “find” enough votes to overturn the results.
Shepherd, a lawyer and political science professor who lives in Greene’s district, said “we never know what position Marjorie Taylor Greene is going to pop up with next.”
“I don’t know if she has any core convictions, except for what will help her the most,” he said.
Greene started her congressional tenure as Trump was leaving the White House, and she supported the election lies that fueled the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. She became a media fixture as a target of liberal scorn and a promoter of Trump-style conservatism, and was a loyal lieutenant in his comeback campaign in 2024.
But tension seemed to begin earlier this year when Greene was exploring a potential 2026 campaign against Jon Ossoff, one of Georgia’s two Democratic senators. Trump said he sent Greene a poll showing that she “didn’t have a chance.” She ultimately passed on the race and later declined to run for Georgia governor while attacking a political “good ole boy” system that she accused of endangering Republican control of the state.
