One-time MAGA stalwart Marjorie Taylor Greene is deepening her rift with President Donald Trump’s coalition with a demand that Republicans end the government shutdown.
The Georgia Republican said this week’s shutdown “doesn’t have to be happening” and placed blame for the impasse on the GOP, which controls the White House and holds a majority in the House and Senate.
“Right now this shutdown is a big political fight and drama, but it doesn’t have to be happening,” she told InfoWars. “The Senate can use the nuclear option and override the 60-vote rule. They can pass the CR with a simple majority.”
The lawmaker noted that the Senate activated this rule to expedite the confirmation of Trump’s nominees last month. The funding bill that has the Senate in gridlock has already passed the House.
Like Greene, the majority of Americans also blame the GOP for the shutdown, according to a poll conducted by The Washington Post this week. This is despite desperate attempts by the Trump administration, which include potential Hatch Act violations, to pin the stalemate on the Democrats.
Republicans, including Trump, have falsely claimed that Democrats are to blame for the shutdown because they want to give free healthcare to undocumented immigrants. In fact, federal law bars unauthorized immigrants from buying Obamacare marketplace plans or receiving Obamacare subsidies. They’re also ineligible for Medicaid, Medicare, and CHIP.
Greene went on to criticize her fellow Republicans for playing politics when the shutdown is harming Americans, forcing TSA agents, air traffic controllers, and soldiers to continue working without pay. She also noted that WIC program benefits are frozen for struggling families and single mothers.
“These are single moms that, you know, people have hit hard times over the past four years because of inflation, and the cost of living is extremely high right now,” the congresswoman said. “And so I don’t think that these vulnerable Americans should pay the price because of politics in Washington, D.C. I believe that soon, the Republican senators need to actually grow some courage and a spine.”
Greene is known for her blistering rebukes of Democrats, but during MAGA 2.0, she has also used such sharp words to criticize those within her own party. Her office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast on Friday.
Her split from Trump, 79, emerged after it became clear his administration was not going to declassify the so-called “Epstein files,” in which he is named, for the public to read themselves, as he had long promised.
Greene, 51, indicated on Friday’s show that she still supports the president but is frustrated with his governing, which has lately included sharing a plethora of AI-generated content and memes. She has also broken with the White House over the continuing U.S. military support for Israel and told The New York Times that her reaction to White House pushback has been to say, “[Expletive] you!”
She kept more of a level head during her interview on the right-wing InfoWars.
“I support President Trump,” she said on Friday. “I campaigned for him very hard, but I am frustrated at the fact that we aren’t passing bills to make his policies permanent.
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