Marjorie Taylor Greene rattled off the ways she says Donald Trump is failing to embody the MAGA movement, deepening a rift that threatens to split their base.
The MAGA congresswoman refused to say whether Trump was loyally representing MAGA on State of the Union on Sunday after spending the weekend batting away attacks from the president.
“I think that the American people deserve to be put first. That‘s what ‘Make America Great Again’ means to me and I think that President Trump can do that if he refocuses his effort,” she said.
While she danced around the idea of Trump turning his back on MAGA, she wasn’t shy in listing all of the ways he was falling short.
“I‘ve been putting massive pressure on my party and our speaker to pass the agenda that the American people voted for. That‘s the agenda that I fought for,” she told the CNN host Dana Bash.
Greene cited Trump’s recent meeting with Syrian president Ahmed al-Sharaa, whose revolutionary group al-Nasra Front was part of al-Qaeda before he went on to denounce jihadism against the West.
“I very much am against that,” Greene said of the summit. “I think that was very hurtful to the great men and women who served over in the Middle East and were sent there, and many of them that were killed and injured and live with PTSD to this day from fighting al-Qaeda.”
Asked by Bash whether Trump “represents the MAGA movement as he once did,” Greene again refused to say “no” but was happy to provide examples working against him.
“Well, what the American people voted for with MAGA was to put the American people first and stop sending foreign aid and stop being involved in foreign wars. They very much deserve to be put first,” she said.
“Cost of living is far too high. Health insurance is completely out of control.”
“Sounds like you‘re saying that he is not representing the MAGA movement that he started right now,” Bash noted, after Greene said that she “wanted” Trump to be “successful.”
Greene was quiet for a moment, before responding: “I can say that promoting H1-B visas to replace American jobs, bringing in 600,000 Chinese students to replace American students’ opportunities in American colleges and universities, those are not America first positions.”
The congresswoman, who has continued to be vocal in her demands to see the Epstein files released, concluded with another of her common criticisms about the “president of peace” spending an awful lot of time involved in the foreign policy of other nations.
“Continuing to really travel all over the world doesn‘t help Americans back at home. I really—and I said this to him and I will say it out loud—I would love to see Air Force One be parked and stay home,” she said.
“And there be nothing but a constant focus in the White House house on a domestic agenda that helps the American people once and for all.”
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