LAFAYETTE, Georgia — Half an hour into the Walker County GOP meeting, Chairwoman Jackie Harling turned to “the elephant in the room” — the explosive breakup of President Donald Trump and their congresswoman, Marjorie Taylor Greene.
As Harling put it: “Mom and dad are separated.”
No one directly criticized the president in the 45-minute discussion that followed. But the message was clear: Not even Trump could not turn these Make America Great Again supporters against one of their movement’s biggest stars in Congress. Audience members murmured in agreement as the Republican chair for the congressional district, who has worked for Greene, defended her and cast her as even more focused on the “America First” agenda than Trump.
“We got Donald Trump trying to take care of the world,” said the chair, Jim Tully, pacing in front of the lectern. “Got Marjorie Taylor Greene trying to take care of the country.”
Greene’s split with Trump, which unfolded over issues ranging from foreign workers to the push to release government files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, is testing the president’s command of the “America First” movement he mobilized. Trump recently called Greene a “traitor,” withdrew his endorsement of her reelection and encouraged a primary challenge in 2026. But many Republican leaders and voters in Greene’s deep-red district say they are sticking with her, boosting her bid to carve out a populist MAGA brand independent of the president.
The mood in Georgia’s 14th District, a rural GOP stronghold in the state’s northwest, offers one early measure of Trump’s pull in the party as he faces rare pushback from MAGA leaders. The president has said he knows “what MAGA wants better than anybody else,” but some allies have warned that he has in some ways fallen out of step with the base.
The fallout is still risky for Greene, once considered one of Trump’s staunchest supporters on the Hill. Her allies are quick to emphasize that they still support Trump. Her recent criticism of the president has infuriated some other Republicans, who accuse her of stoking divisions in the GOP that Democrats are eager to amplify. And some GOP voters said in interviews that they are questioning Greene’s commitment to the party.
“Our president is not happy with her,” said John Hagen, 83. “And I usually go along with our president.”
But even some of Greene’s Republican critics say that her populist message has resonated in the district and that it will be difficult to oust her. Trump is also trying to unseat Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky), another House Republican who has clashed with him.
After the Walker County GOP meeting finished, 45-year-old Roy Hambrick lingered in the parking lot and chatted with another attendee. Hambrick, who hosts a local podcast, returned to the topic of “Marjorie and Trump.” He still liked Trump, but he told the other man that someone needed to knock Trump in the back of the head and tell him to stop.
Some people said Greene was “backstabbing” the party, Hambrick said, but in his view she was “speaking the language of the people.” And she was getting results.
“Did you see the House voted today to release the Epstein files?” he said. “I was jumping up and down. This is what I want.”
For months, Trump had lashed out at supporters he accused of obsessing over the Epstein files, suggesting that the issue was a distraction promoted by Democrats. Greene and three other House Republicans this week succeeded in forcing a House vote to release the documents, joining with Democrats and overcoming fierce resistance from the White House. After a vote became inevitable, Trump reversed course and said Republicans should support the release. On Wednesday, he said that he had signed the bill Congress passed directing the Justice Department to release the files. The Justice Department has said little about how it would respond.
Greene’s office and the White House did not respond to requests for comment. The congresswoman wrote on social media this week that Trump’s attacks on her are “unwarranted and vicious.” Trump’s team has said he is delivering on his campaign promises as the “architect” of MAGA.
Releasing the Epstein files has been a years-long cause on the right, with Trump allies previously promoting theories that elites covered up an extensive child sex-trafficking ring. The House Oversight Committee recently released thousands of pages of documents that included details of his correspondence with powerful associates and some emails that Epstein wrote about Trump. Republicans largely dismissed the emails, which did not describe any criminal wrongdoing by Trump.
Greene’s recent tensions with Trump went far beyond the Epstein files. The congresswoman also suggested the Trump administration is too focused on foreign affairs, criticized aid to Argentina and assailed her party’s approach to health care in a slew of media appearances. Days after Trump drew MAGA backlash for saying that the U.S. needs foreign workers because it does not have enough “talented people” for specialized jobs, Greene said she would introduce a bill to end the H-1B visa program at the center of the controversy, saying, “I serve Americans only.”
Trump erupted Friday night, writingon Truth Social that potential conservative challengers in Greene’s district are “fed up with her and her antics” and that “if the right person runs, they will have my Complete and Unyielding Support.”
The back-and-forth kept escalating: The president branded her “Marjorie ‘Traitor’ Greene,” while Greene accused Trump of putting her in danger. Police in Rome, Georgia, said they responded to a bomb threat at Greene’s home there on Tuesday but found “no active hazard,” and are investigating email threats directed at Greene’s family.
Local Republicans are holding out hope that Trump and Greene will make up, just as Trump has made up with other Republicans now serving in his Cabinet.
“I love mom, and I love dad, and I know that deep down they love each other,” Harling, the Walker County GOP chair, said in an interview. “I want mom and dad to make up. And I think they will.”
Harling’s group is one of several county parties in Greene’s district that shared a statement supporting the congresswoman after Trump pulled his endorsement. The statement came from Tully, the GOP chair for the 14th District, who alluded to “recent national criticism” of Greene and said he stood by her. (Tully has served as a field representative for Greene this year. He and Greene’s office did not respond to inquiries about whether he still works for her.)
Salleigh Grubbs, a state GOP leader who used to chair the party in Cobb County — which overlaps with Greene’s district — said a primary challenge to Greene will be an “uphill battle” for an opponent.
“Because the people that support the congresswoman are definitely digging in their heels,” she said.
At the same time, Greene’s clash with Trump has created new critics around the state.
Kylie Jane Kremer, the Georgia-based executive director of Women for America First, said she used to consider Greene “America First” but “lately her behavior feels more like a toddler having a temper tantrum.”
“We need real fighters, not attention-seekers,” she said.
Plenty of Republicans in the district just want the fighting to end. “We need to come together as family and stop all this madness that’s going on in our party,” one man at the Walker County GOP meeting said. The crowd applauded.
In Rome, 56-year-old Tammy Carter said Trump needs to “get over” his spat with Greene. She voted for the president, and still liked a lot of his agenda, but had some disagreements: The comment about the shortage of “talented people” in the U.S., she said, made her angry, and she thought Greene was right about the Epstein files.
“When it comes to that,” she said, “I’m totally on her side.”
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