 "US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) gestures, on the first day of the 119th Congress at the US Capitol in Washington, US, January 3, 2025. File Image/Reuters")
Marjorie Taylor Greene has abruptly decided to resign from the United States Congress.
Once celebrated by US President Donald Trump as one of his most forceful defenders, the Georgia Republican has now become the target of his most aggressive public rebukes.
The same president she championed for years is now the man who branded her a “traitor,” a “disgrace,” and a “ranting lunatic.”
Her departure will be effective January 5, 2026.
How Greene entered US politics
Greene’s public life did not begin in Washington but in the online fringes of conservative activism. In 2017, she entered the political conversation through American Truth Seekers, a website that frequently promoted conspiracy-laden narratives.
She then became involved with the Family America Project, a conservative grassroots network.
These roles helped her build early credibility among anti-establishment conservatives and strengthened her reputation as a political agitator deeply mistrustful of the federal government.
As she began exploring electoral possibilities, Greene weighed several congressional districts before selecting Georgia’s 14th district for her first race. The district leaned heavily Republican, making the primary the pivotal contest.
Greene framed her candidacy as an unapologetically pro-Trump alternative to more traditional Republicans. She criticised liberalism, denounced antifa, and leaned into provocative imagery, including a campaign ad where she held an assault rifle.
Her rhetoric quickly attracted national attention — both from conservative activists who admired her confrontational style and from critics who saw her as embracing violent, conspiratorial politics.
Although Trump did not initially endorse her, he threw his support behind her during the GOP run-off. With that boost, she easily secured the nomination and later won the general election.
When Greene entered US Congress
Upon arriving in Washington in January 2021, Greene wasted no time signalilng her stance on the outcome of the 2020 election.
She wore a mask reading “Trump won,” a message reinforcing her view that Biden’s victory was illegitimate — a view Trump himself continued to push.
Her early months in Congress were marked by widespread scrutiny of online posts she had made before holding office. These posts contained extreme views that Democrats and many Republicans found deeply troubling.
Some of these past remarks included suggestions that Democratic leaders deserved punishment or violence, scepticism about the reality of mass shootings in Parkland and Sandy Hook, and unsubstantiated statements speculating on government involvement in calamities such as the 9/11 attacks.
She also gained notoriety for promoting QAnon-related content and accusing powerful elites of involvement in sinister global conspiracies.
At one point, she echoed claims about wildfires being caused by a “space laser” allegedly tied to a wealthy Jewish banking family.
These controversies culminated in the House voting to remove her from committee assignments in 2021.
During the debate, Greene defended herself by characterising her earlier beliefs as mistakes from her past. She wore a mask labelled “Free Speech” and told her colleagues that her previous support for QAnon had been “words of the past.”
Still, she did not directly retract many of her earlier comments, and Democrats remained unconvinced.
Despite the criticism, Greene’s notoriety energised her support among specific Republican voters who felt alienated from mainstream institutions. She quickly became a recognisable face of the party’s most hardline faction.
Greene: A loyal soldier for Trump — until she wasn’t
Throughout her early tenure, Greene’s identity as a lawmaker was tightly bound to Trump’s cause. She regularly attacked Democrats, criticised moderate Republicans, and echoed Trump’s language and worldview.
She also defended the January 6 rioters, at one point claiming that if she had organised the event, participants would have been “armed” and would have “won.” After the White House condemned these comments, she said they were intended as a joke.
Greene described herself in her public bio as a Christian, a businesswoman, and a mother, but she also emphasized being “100% pro-life, pro-gun, pro-Trump.”
Among the Maga base, she was seen as someone who combined fierce conservatism with an embrace of anti-establishment grievances that resonated across Trump-aligned communities.
For Trump, Greene was an early congressional ally in pushing “America First” policies. She became known as one of the most combative defenders of his administration and a reliable voice in media appearances.
But by 2025, that alliance was visibly fraying.
Greene vs Trump on the Epstein files
The trigger for the meltdown between Greene and Trump was the escalating fight over the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files.
Greene supported a bipartisan move in the House to make the documents public, arguing that Americans deserved transparency about the networks of power surrounding Epstein, a convicted sex offender with ties to global elites.
Trump strongly opposed the push, and when Greene aligned herself with the effort, the clash turned deeply personal.
He attacked her repeatedly on Truth Social, alleging she had grown disloyal and too critical of his foreign policy decisions.
He claimed she had shifted leftward and insisted she was motivated by anger that he did not support her ambition to run for Senate or Governor in Georgia.
One of his posts declared, “All I see “Wacky” Marjorie do is COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN!”
He also accused her of associating with media outlets unfriendly to Maga. “She has gone Far Left, even doing The View,” he wrote.
According to Trump, Greene had become someone who “catered to the other side,” an accusation that resonated with some of his supporters and angered many who had once admired her.
The conflict reached a boiling point when he said he could no longer tolerate her behaviour.
“I can’t take a ranting Lunatic’s call every day… I understand that wonderful, Conservative people are thinking about primarying Marjorie… if the right person runs, they will have my Complete and Unyielding Support.”
Greene, in turn, posted private text exchanges, arguing that she had acted out of concern for victims of trafficking and abuse. She insisted Trump’s opposition to the Epstein files contradicted the movement’s commitment to protecting vulnerable Americans.
“Standing up for American women who were raped at 14, trafficked and used by rich powerful men, should not result in me being called a traitor and threatened by the president of the United States, whom I fought for,” she wrote.
She also questioned Trump’s priorities, remarking, “But really most Americans wish he would fight this hard to help the forgotten men and women of America… That’s what I voted for.”
As the public exchanged escalated, their long-standing alliance crumbled.
Greene vs Trump on US foreign policy
Greene was also sharply critical of Trump’s decisions abroad, including actions in West Asia. She condemned Israel’s war in Gaza, describing it as a “genocide,” a position that set her apart not only from Trump but even from many Democrats who supported Israel’s right to self-defence.
She also objected to US assistance to Kyiv and questioned Trump’s decision to support Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
She also raised concerns about the administration backing Argentina under President Javier Milei with financial support amounting to $20 billion.
Another policy gap emerged over immigration. Greene promoted legislation intended to eliminate the H1B visa programme, an idea Trump did not back.
What led Greene to resign
When Greene announced her resignation on Friday, she released a detailed video outlining her motivations.
She said she would not allow a “hurtful and hateful primary” supported by Trump to divide her district, nor would she continue to operate in a Congress she believed had lost relevance.
“I refuse to be a battered wife hoping it all goes away and gets better,” she said.
She warned that voters were increasingly disconnected from elected officials who, in her view, were not addressing rising living costs, household debt, high rents, or the role large financial firms played in pushing ordinary Americans out of the housing market.
In her resignation letter, she expressed frustration with the way institutional power in Washington operates. She claimed that the “political industrial complex” had made it impossible for someone like her to rein in government excesses or stop what she saw as the country’s gradual decline.
Her letter stated, “I’m going back to the people I love, to live life to the fullest as I always have, and look forward to a new path ahead.”
Rumours circulated that disagreements over a possible Senate bid contributed to her falling out with Trump, but Greene did not confirm this.
She maintained, however, that her policy commitments remained conservative and that the Maga movement’s leadership no longer represented ordinary Americans.
She also pointed to the likelihood that Republicans could lose control of the House in the upcoming midterms.
Should that happen, she said, she would be forced into a defensive posture during impeachment proceedings against Trump — a situation she found “absurd” and “completely unserious.”
Her statement included one of her strongest warnings, “If I am cast aside by Maga Inc and replaced by Neocons, Big Pharma, Big Tech, Military Industrial War Complex, foreign leaders, and the elite donor class that can’t even relate to real Americans, then many common Americans have been cast aside and replaced as well.”
How Trump & Co. reacted
Trump offered a blunt response when asked about her resignation. In an interview with ABC News, he said it was “great news for the country. It’s great.”
Republicans now, however, face a complicated landscape. Greene’s resignation reduces their House majority to 218-213, with Democrats eager to exploit any intraparty divisions ahead of key elections.
The feud has also raised questions over whether Maga can maintain a united base when high-profile figures clash publicly.
Greene, who won her district with 64 per cent of the vote in 2024, leaves office with a strong regional base but an uncertain political future.
She has not announced her next steps, but residents in her district expressed hope that she and Trump might eventually repair their relationship.
With inputs from agencies