His give up on the Epstein information—and his assault on Marjorie Taylor Greene—proves it.
President Donald Trump was greeted by Consultant Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) earlier than he addressed a joint session of Congress on the Capitol in Washington on Tuesday, March 4, 2025.
(Alex Brandon / AP)
On Sunday evening, Donald Trump abjectly surrendered in one of the crucial intense political battles of his second time period. For months, the White Home had been pressuring congressional Republicans to carry the road towards a invoice that might require the discharge of Justice Division information related to late pedophile—and Trump pal—Jeffrey Epstein. However Trump couldn’t get each GOP member to do his bidding. Four Republican representatives—Thomas Massie, Lauren Boebert, Nancy Mace, and Marjorie Taylor Greene—stubbornly joined with each Home Democrat to help the invoice’s passage. This group created a beachhead in Congress that was inciting extra GOP defections. Trump noticed the place the wind was blowing. In flip-flopping on the information, he was caving to the inevitable.
However simply because Trump has admitted defeat doesn’t imply he gained’t search revenge. And he’s began by concentrating on the individual whose defection would possibly minimize deepest of all: Marjorie Taylor Greene. Trump harbors a selected bitterness towards Greene—the type {that a} cult chief has for a once-prized disciple who turns into an apostate.
Not like most Republican lawmakers, Greene had no actual political id earlier than Trump. She entered Congress in 2020 as an particularly enthusiastic cheerleader for the MAGA revolution, going as far as to defend the January 6 assault on the Capitol as a motion to “overthrow tyrants.” She additionally hyped QAnon conspiracy theories that portrayed Trump because the sufferer of “deep state” conspiracy. All of this made her appear extra Trumpian than Trump, a real harbinger of the way forward for the GOP as a MAGA-dominated celebration. Like Trump, Greene possesses a larger-than-life persona and a expertise for provocation. This helped make her a nationwide determine within the social media age, the place the eye economic system rewards inflammatory rhetoric.
Nevertheless it’s exactly as a result of she was a Trumpian true believer that Greene was additionally in a position to see that the Epstein scandal was her alternative to grab the mantle of management away from Trump. Her personal political profession was stalling, since she was unpopular with congressional Republican leaders akin to Mike Johnson. Additional, Trump reportedly blocked Greene’s plans to run for Senate in Georgia subsequent 12 months.
Discovering her political future stonewalled, Greene grew to become increasingly critical of the president and GOP orthodoxy, criticizing the bombing of Iran as a violation of Trump’s promise of an anti-interventionist stance, questioning whether or not unconditional help and armament of Israel was actually America First, and even changing into the primary Republican in Congress to describe the slaughter of civilians in Gaza as a “genocide.” She has additionally launched critiques of Trump and fellow Republicans for not having insurance policies that cope with affordability or spiraling healthcare costs. Taken collectively, this a populist platform that makes use of Trump’s personal rhetoric to place Greene as extra authentically MAGA than Trump himself.
Greene has been notably efficient in making herself the face of GOP opposition to Trump’s intransigence over Epstein—a problem that, regardless of Trump’s greatest efforts, the MAGA base refuses to let fade away. On Saturday, a letter signed by 27 women figuring out themselves as survivors of Jeffrey Epstein was launched, calling for a renewed bipartisan push to launch the Epstein information. As a result of Greene had been repeatedly singled out for abuse by Trump, the letter particularly praised her for standing up “towards the intimidation, silencing, and abuse.”
Present Concern
On Friday, Trump issued a lengthy Truth Social post denouncing Greene in vociferous phrases. The put up learn partially:
I’m withdrawing my help and Endorsement of “Congresswoman” Marjorie Taylor Greene, of the Nice State of Georgia. Over the previous few weeks, regardless of my creating File Achievements for our Nation … all I see “Wacky” Marjorie do is COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN! It appeared to all start after I despatched her a Ballot stating that she mustn’t run for Senator, or Governor, she was at 12%, and didn’t have an opportunity (except, after all, she had my Endorsement — which she wasn’t about to get!). She has instructed many individuals that she is upset that I don’t return her telephone calls anymore, however with 219 Congressmen/ladies, 53 U.S. Senators, 24 Cupboard Members, virtually 200 International locations, and an in any other case regular life to guide, I can’t take a ranting Lunatic’s name each day. I perceive that fantastic, Conservative persons are excited about primarying Marjorie in her District of Georgia, that they too are fed up along with her and her antics and, if the correct individual runs, they’ll have my Full and Unyielding Assist. She has gone Far Left, even doing The View, with their Low IQ Republican hating Anchors. Thanks on your consideration to this matter. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
Greene responded to the put up by taking the excessive highway, calling on fellow Republicans to give attention to affordability fairly than stonewalling the Epstein investigation. She additionally argued, plausibly sufficient, that Trump’s incendiary rhetoric about her being a “traitor” might incite violence. Extra unexpectedly, she additionally apologized for “collaborating in poisonous politics” in a few of her personal earlier inflammatory assaults on Democrats.
Greene might afford to be magnanimous as a result of all proof signifies that she’s successful the battle over the Epstein information, which itself might assist her triumph within the civil conflict now engulfing MAGA.
The Trump/Greene feud is a component of a bigger story. Not too long ago humiliated within the off-cycle elections, Trump is quickly approaching lame-duck standing. The 2026 midterms are lower than a 12 months away, and the second they’re over, the approaching 2028 presidential race will push Trump additional and additional into the background. These within the MAGA motion know he gained’t be capable to run once more and are actually attempting to place themselves as Trump’s inheritor in ready. This explains the intense debate surrounding potential power brokers akin to Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes, the white nationalist whose rising prominence is dividing the correct.
On Saturday, the favored right-wing podcaster Tim Dillion, whom Republicans usually flip to so as to attain younger males, commented on Trump’s diminished function as chief:
That is the top of the Trump administration. That is the start of the lame duck presidency. It’s apparent to everybody, even his most ardent supporters present as much as the White Home like Laura Ingraham, she’s sort of shocked, like, “What the hell is happening?” Now we’ll begin three years speaking in regards to the ballroom. He’ll path off, he’ll become old, he’s adorning the White Home in gold. Epstein’s gonna suck the oxygen out of lots of this.
Fashionable
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The splintering of MAGA and the weakening of Trump ought to be welcomed on the left, because it hobbles the GOP and provides alternatives for recruiting some Republican votes on key points, as within the launch of the Epstein information.
Nevertheless it additionally ought to go with out saying that Marjorie Taylor Greene, regardless of her welcome shift on a couple of points, stays past the pale of decency. She’s nonetheless an ardent xenophobic nationalist who blames immigrants for financial issues. Regardless of her current apologetic phrases, there’s no motive to neglect her lengthy historical past of antisemitism, racism, and conspiratorialism. Like Trump, Greene refuses to criticize Tucker Carlson for platforming Nick Fuentes in a prolonged and largely uncritical interview. In truth, Greene has known as on CNN to interview Fuentes.
Greene is preventing Trump as a result of she needs to interchange him as the top of MAGA. We will cheer her on in a couple of of her assaults on Trump, however she continues to be our political foe. If she is Trump’s inheritor, she’ll should be fought as fiercely as Trump himself.
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