MAGA Rift Widens as Trump, Greene Clash

WEST PALM BEACH, Florida: When President Donald Trump addressed Congress earlier this year, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was there holding an American flag and wearing a red baseball cap that said “Trump was right about everything.” After the speech, he gave her a kiss and she beamed. Trump was back in power and Greene was positioned to be one of his most ardent political foot soldiers with Republicans controlling all levers of power in Washington. Their alliance didn't last the year. Now it has fractured in an explosive feud that could foreshadow more rifts within Trump's “Make America Great Again” movement before next year's midterm elections. In recent weeks, Greene has escalated her criticism of Trump's focus on foreign policy over what she has said should be an agenda that concentrates on Americans, as well as his reluctance to release more documents involving the Jeffrey Epstein case. On Friday, the Republican president said he would support a primary challenge against 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 Force One to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida. On Saturday, Trump tested out a new nickname for her, calling her “Marjorie Taylor Brown” because “Green grass turns Brown when it begins to ROT!” Trump has successfully stamped out other challenges to his power over the years, but Greene is not backing down. She even suggested that she, not Trump, may be the true champion of the “America First” agenda. “I believe in the American people more than I believe in any leader or political party and the American people deserve so much better than how they have been treated by both sides of the aisle,” she wrote in her own post Saturday. She also said she is worried about her safety because “threats against me are being fueled and egged on by the most powerful man in the world.” Trump backed Greene from the start 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 former Republican official in Georgia who left the party 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 Jan. 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. A new Greene? Greene has recently set a different, more conciliatory tone. She went on ABC's “The View,” a daytime talk show considered a safe space for Democrats, to say “that people with powerful voices,” especially women, “need to pave a new path.” The rhetoric sparked speculation that Greene might be considering a run for president herself, which was later denied by her boyfriend, Brian Glenn, a conservative reporter known for his friendly questioning of Trump. Greene also has been criticizing Trump, particularly his work with other countries. She told Tucker Carlson last month that the administration's support for Argentina was “a punch in the gut" at a time when Americans are angry about prices for everyday...