When the White Home discouraged Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from launching a Senate bid in Georgia this spring, Greene — a longtime loyal ally of President Donald Trump — agreed to again off her statewide ambitions.
However that didn’t imply the firebrand Republican was going to again down from different fights she felt had been price waging — together with, or maybe particularly, together with her personal celebration.
Over the previous six months, Greene has made waves in Washington for publicly breaking with Trump and the GOP on a lot of high-profile points and lobbing some pointed assaults at her fellow Republicans within the course of. She was important of the Trump administration’s strikes on Iran, referred to the situation in Gaza as a “genocide,” signed her identify to an effort to force a House vote to require the Justice Division to launch its information associated to the Jeffrey Epstein case and, most not too long ago, sided with Democrats in calling for an extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies amid the federal government shutdown battle.
“I’m not some form of blind slave to the president, and I don’t assume anybody ought to be,” Greene mentioned in an interview. “I serve in Congress. We’re a separate department of the federal government, and I’m not elected by the president. I’m not elected by anybody that works within the White Home. I’m elected by my district. That’s who I work for, and I received elected with out the president’s endorsement, and, you already know, I feel that has served me very well.”
Greene gained her first Home major in Georgia in 2020 with out Trump’s endorsement earlier than she obtained his help within the basic election in her deep-red district.
“So I get to be unbiased as a Republican,” she added, “and I feel what helps [Trump] probably the most is when he has folks which can be prepared to be trustworthy with him and never simply inform him what they assume he desires to listen to.”
Greene denies that her statewide ambitions’ being dashed has something to do together with her latest unbiased streak, saying that has at all times been her model. She additionally slammed the Republican-led Senate, insisting she was by no means all that involved in serving there anyway, though she had publicly talked about her need to run.
“I don’t need to serve in that establishment. Have a look at them. They’re actually the rationale why the federal government is shut down proper now,” Greene mentioned. “I feel all good issues go to die within the Senate, and I definitely don’t need to go there. However I feel these are simply assaults to attempt to marginalize me or attempt to sweep me off, so to talk. And I actually don’t care.”
Whereas Greene has been a solo operator up to now, her latest habits has shocked even some people who find themselves near her. She tried on the position of “staff participant” for some time, particularly when former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., was in cost. However she has grown more and more disillusioned with politics and her personal celebration, and he or she felt particularly burned after the White Home talked her out of working for the Senate, based on 4 Republican sources acquainted with the matter.
A kind of sources, who’s near Greene — who brazenly expressed interest in turning into homeland safety secretary — mentioned she was additionally disenchanted she didn’t get a job within the Trump administration. One other one of many sources, who can also be near Greene and spoke to her not too long ago, added that she has felt “ignored” by GOP management and the White Home.
If Greene’s intentions had been to get Trump’s consideration, it seems to have labored. In latest months, he referred to as a minimum of two senior Republicans to ask, “What’s happening with Marjorie?” based on two GOP sources with direct data of the conversations.
Greene, who’s arguably extra in tune with the MAGA base than every other member of Congress, says she nonetheless helps Trump and maintains shut ties with him. However her relationship along with his workers is a distinct story.
The White Home has unsuccessfully tried to strain Greene to take away her identify from the Epstein discharge petition. Greene was notably incensed when she learn an nameless White Home official advised reporters that supporting the petition can be seen as a “hostile act.” She then went on Actual America’s Voice and referred to as that official a “coward.”
In what some Republicans seen as one other signal of Greene’s shifting angle towards the political scene, she was invited final month to attend the grand opening of Trump’s “Rose Garden Club” on the White Home, however she turned it down, based on a supply acquainted with the matter. It was the kind of unique Trump occasion that Greene would usually have cleared her schedule to attend. Her workplace mentioned she was underneath the climate.
Greene additionally has a strained relationship with Home Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., whom she feels zero loyalty to and tried unsuccessfully to take away from his submit final 12 months over his help for Ukraine assist.
Not like McCarthy, who strategically introduced Greene into the fold so he may higher management her habits, Johnson hasn’t made the identical overtures. Greene was a pariah when she first got here to Congress for her incendiary rhetoric, so she was wanting to show herself and play the within sport. However now, she is more and more embracing her outsider standing.
“I didn’t run for Congress as an institution Republican, and after I ran for Congress, I’d by no means even been to a GOP assembly. So I didn’t come up via the ranks,” Greene mentioned. “And I feel lots of people don’t perceive that. I’m very a lot a median American. I don’t see issues via the celebration polls and the speaking factors; I have a look at the true issues and analyze them that manner. … So I feel that helps me have a distinct viewpoint.”
In calling for an extension of the Reasonably priced Care Act subsidies, Greene cited her personal kids for instance of how persons are going to be damage if Republicans allow them to lapse. Greene mentioned she was “disgusted” by the prospect though she doesn’t just like the underlying regulation, and he or she criticized GOP management for not having a plan to handle it.
Democrats had been fast to grab on her feedback to bolster their argument. Senate Minority Chief Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., cited them on the Senate flooring, whereas Home Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., even put her social media post in regards to the matter on a poster board and took it to a information convention.
At his personal information convention Tuesday, Johnson dismissed Greene’s criticism of the celebration’s strategy on Obamacare subsidies, arguing she isn’t knowledgeable in regards to the matter.
“Congresswoman Greene doesn’t serve on the committees of jurisdiction that cope with that, these specialised points, and he or she’s in all probability not learn in on a few of that,” he mentioned.
However Greene hasn’t budged within the face of criticism from celebration management.
“The fact is that they by no means discuss it, and that committee engaged on, say, medical insurance and the business, that doesn’t occur in a [secure facility]; it’s not a significant secret,” Greene mentioned, including that Johnson has but to achieve out to her to debate her considerations.
“What I’m upset over is my celebration has no resolution,” she mentioned. “It’s not one thing that we discuss incessantly, however it’s a actuality for Individuals, and it’s one thing that I don’t assume we will ignore. I would like, I actually need to repair it.”
Now that she has given up on working for the Senate subsequent 12 months and was handed over for a Trump administration job, it’s unclear what’s in retailer for Greene’s political future. She raised $1.3 million within the first six months of the 12 months, barely lower than the $1.9 million she had introduced in on the identical level in 2023, and he or she has solely $641,000 money available.
Requested whether or not she’s dedicated to working for re-election within the Home subsequent 12 months, Greene mentioned: “Oh, definitely. I haven’t made any issues like that. I don’t, actually, I don’t even give it some thought. Proper now, I’m similar to, rattling it, why aren’t we again at work?”
