President Trump is done with Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Once one of Mr. Trump’s most reliable allies on Capitol Hill, the Georgia Republican has increasingly broken ranks with him, most notably by calling for the release of the Justice Department’s files about the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
By Friday evening, Mr. Trump let the world know how he felt.
“I am withdrawing my support and Endorsement of ‘Congresswoman’ Marjorie Taylor Greene, of the Great State of Georgia,” he wrote on social media. Over the past several weeks, Mr. Trump said, “all I see “Wacky” Marjorie do is COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN!”
He characterized Ms. Greene — whom he stood by when she was under fire, years ago, for voicing conspiracy theories about Sept. 11, school shootings and wildfires started by space lasers — as a nuisance who was interrupting his life.
“She has told many people that she is upset that I don’t return her phone calls anymore, but with 219 Congressmen/women, 53 U.S. Senators, 24 Cabinet Members, almost 200 Countries, and an otherwise normal life to lead, I can’t take a ranting Lunatic’s call every day,” he said.
Mr. Trump also issued a not-so-veiled threat about her seat in Congress.
“I understand that wonderful, Conservative people are thinking about primarying Marjorie in her District of Georgia, that they too are fed up with her and her antics and, if the right person runs, they will have my Complete and Unyielding Support,” he wrote. “She has gone Far Left, even doing The View, with their Low IQ Republican hating Anchors.”
Ms. Greene quickly shot back with her own post.
“President Trump just attacked me and lied about me,” she wrote on X, where she published a text message she had sent the president asking him to “lean into” the Epstein investigation. “I haven’t called him at all, but I did send these text messages today. Apparently this is what sent him over the edge. The Epstein files.”
She continued: “It’s astonishing really how hard he’s fighting to stop the Epstein files from coming out that he actually goes to this level. But really most Americans wish he would fight this hard to help the forgotten men and women of America who are fed up with foreign wars and foreign causes, are going broke trying to feed their families, and are losing hope of ever achieving the American dream.”
The rupture marks an end to a political relationship that dates back to her first run for office in 2020, when she promoted the pro-Trump QAnon conspiracy theory. (She has since disavowed it.) Ms. Greene was arguably Mr. Trump’s most outspoken supporter in Congress, and at one time had been talked about as a possible vice presidential pick.
Under fire when she first got to Congress for spreading dangerous and bigoted misinformation, Ms. Greene relied on the support of Mr. Trump, who called her a “future Republican star” and “a real WINNER!”
Her support for Mr. Trump appeared unwavering; she was once threatened with removal from a State of the Union address for wearing a red Make America Great Again hat on the House floor. As recently as last week, Ms. Greene said she felt “love” toward the president.
And while she has often acted as a thorn in the side of Speaker Mike Johnson, Ms. Greene had not broken with Mr. Trump — until recently.
She has argued that the president should focus more attention on domestic issues instead of flying abroad to negotiate deals with other countries. She was the first Republican lawmaker to label the crisis in Gaza a genocide. And she was one of only four House Republicans who joined Democrats in trying to force a vote on releasing the Epstein files in full.
Still, she has argued that she understands the “America First” movement that Mr. Trump started better than any Republican, and has said she is trying to persuade Mr. Trump to stick to the principles of his own movement.
The fallout between Mr. Trump and Ms. Greene has been building for weeks, and Mr. Trump has hinted at his agitation with her before.
Over the summer, Mr. Trump saw Ms. Greene’s boyfriend, Brian Glenn, a reporter for the right-wing news outlet Real America’s Voice, at an event with Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida. Mr. Trump turned to Mr. DeSantis and said, “Do you think it’s easy being with Marjorie?”
Luke Broadwater covers the White House for The Times.
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