The News
Marjorie Taylor Greene, the MAGA true believer and Republican Party critic, says that if her party can’t keep its promise to bring down the cost of living, it will pay the price in next year’s midterm elections.
“I can’t see into the future, but I see Republicans losing the House if Americans are continuing to go paycheck-to-paycheck,” the Georgia Republican told Semafor in an interview, pointing to new signs that US credit card debt is at an all-time high. “They’ll definitely be going into the midterms looking through the lens of their bank account.”
It’s only the latest criticism Greene has leveled against her own party’s leadership. As the conservative Georgia lawmaker goes after the GOP for refusing to negotiate a bipartisan deal on health care costs until Democrats agree to its government funding bill, she’s also spoken out against Republicans’ refusal to release all of the Jeffrey Epstein files; their decision to funnel billions of dollars to Argentina; and their inertia after a judge issued a restraining order against Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla.
Democrats have co-opted Greene as they look to force President Donald Trump to the table. But she takes no issue with Trump — the problem, as she sees it, is a party that’s lost touch with the Trumpian ideas it ran on.
“Everyone keeps saying I’ve changed, and I’m saying, ‘No, I haven’t changed,’” Greene said. “I’m staying focused on America First, and I’m urging my party to get back to America First.”
Perhaps by walking that line, Greene has so far managed to avoid provoking the president’s ire. Trump railed on X Friday against two other vocal GOP contrarians, Sen. Rand Paul and Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky — but said nothing about Greene. Instead, Trump announced he would commute the prison sentence of former Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., as Greene has long urged.
Trying to avoid antagonizing the White House with her views is “another thing I don’t consider,” Greene said. “My job title is representative of Georgia’s 14th district, and so I keep my mark, and I think it’s important to stay there.”
Greene said she hasn’t heard from the White House about her recent public distance from party leaders. She declined to comment on how often she talks to Trump or whether she’d consider her own run for president in 2028: “That’s not even a question I’m willing to entertain.”
During a podcast interview earlier this month, she more openly avoided the question of her presidential ambitions. Asked about her identity as a MAGA standard-bearer compared with the vice president, she told comedian Tim Dillon that “I love JD [Vance], but I’m mad about a lot of things and I’m not going to stop talking about it.”
Greene recently told CNN that Trump isn’t getting “good advice.” Asked who she sees giving Trump poor counsel, she avoided laying specific blame.
“Any president, whether it’s a Democrat or Republican president, they’re in a cone of information, and the information is siloed, and it’s coming from their advisers, right?” Greene said. “I mean, that’s how it works. And I just completely disagree with the strategy to keep the government shut down and not pass our appropriation bills.”
Calling up repeated votes on the House GOP’s short-term spending bill “is a complete failure, and that is something I’m really disgusted with,” Greene added. “It’s an America Last strategy, and I don’t know whose strategy that is, but I don’t think it’s a good one.”
“I actually ran for Congress in 2020 angry with Republicans in Congress — which is pretty much where I’m at now again — for always campaigning one way, but when they get the majority, they govern another,” Greene said.
House Speaker Mike Johnson told ABC Sunday that “the House has already passed the 12 appropriations bills through committee” but floor votes have “been stopped by the Democrats in the Senate.”
Behind the scenes, some of Trump’s advisers are befuddled by Greene’s recent pushback — but they see her more as a nuisance than someone who has the sway to imperil his agenda.
On the shutdown, for example, the vast majority of Republican lawmakers remain in lockstep with the administration’s handling of negotiations (or lack thereof). Some Trump advisers don’t think Greene has the ability to sway enough other Republicans to present a serious threat.
As for the possibility that she’s carving out a MAGA lane for a future run for higher office, some close to Trump are quick to point out her history of divisive remarks. They doubt she could outrun those if she tries for a bigger stage.
The White House provided a comment after the publication of this story blaming Democrats for the government shutdown.
“Any negative consequences felt by the American people have been caused purely by the Democrats — they can end the shut down any time they want,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said.
Know More
This fall isn’t the first time Greene’s publicly broken from her party: Earlier this year, she was outspoken about how the Trump administration approached strikes on Iran and aid to Israel. Her relationship with Johnson has been strained since she led a short-lived charge to oust him from the post.
Now, Greene said, she’s hearing privately from House Republicans who share her concerns.
“There is intense frustration within our conference that we aren’t passing our appropriations and we’re not in session,” Greene said. “I do know that is a general, overall feeling, even though they’re sticking to the talking points publicly.”
In her view, Democrats are providing a window to negotiate on health care by “admitting that Obamacare doesn’t work.” And Republicans’ failure to seize that opportunity will hurt them in the midterms, she said.
Health care “should be the No. 1 thing that we’re working on, and I think that is going to be one of the top issues thrown in a 2026 midterm,” Greene said.
Meanwhile, she added, “Mike Johnson is at the press conferences every morning saying that we’ve got pages and pages, or we’ve got a Republican plan — yet I haven’t seen one single page of the so-called Republican plan. I haven’t heard one single GOP conference call on this issue.”
“It’s like, where is it?” Greene added. “The Republican Party is failing.”
Republicans tried to include language targeting health care premiums in their megabill, but the Senate parliamentarian ruled it ineligible. Johnson said in January that 94% of House Republicans were “deeply engaged” in those talks.
Greene says she hears from constituents “every single day” who are glad she’s speaking up about health care costs.
As for the Epstein files, Greene predicted that “the public backlash will be out of control” if Johnson changes House rules to block a vote on their release. Johnson has not indicated he plans to do so.
“That would be a factor going into the midterms as well,” Greene said. “They have highly underestimated what a big deal it is to people.”
Johnson’s office did not comment for this story.
The administration’s effort to steady Argentina’s economy is another political risk for the GOP, Greene said: “That one is shocking to many people, [especially] when you have Americans that literally will go completely bankrupt if they’re faced with a $5,000 emergency crisis.”
She added that a better way to combat China’s influence would be to bolster US farmers.
“It is mind-boggling why we would do this with Argentina,” she said. “There’s a lot of people in MAGA that try to always stick with the talking points … but there’s a lot of people that can’t spin this one.”
Helping Argentina is in the strategic interest of the US because it will stabilize the region, a Treasury Department spokesperson said after the publication of this story. The spokesperson added that the department’s new aid was designed for this purpose and that Democrats are hurting the economy, including farmers, by not supporting the GOP’s spending bill.
Notable
- NBC first reported earlier this month that Greene’s disappointment with being passed over for a Trump administration job was a factor in her recent candor.
- “I try not to react to what Marjorie Taylor Greene says every day,” Johnson told reporters on Friday, per The Hill.
Shelby Talcott contributed reporting.