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U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, a once-loyal supporter of Donald Trump who has become a critic of the president, said Friday she is resigning from Congress in January.
Greene, in a more than 10-minute video posted online, explained her decision and said she’s “always been despised in Washington, D.C., and just never fit in.”
Greene’s resignation followed a public fallout with Trump in recent months, as the congresswoman criticized him for his stance on files related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, along with foreign policy and health care.
Trump branded her a “traitor” and “wacky” and said he would endorse a challenger against her when she ran for re-election next year.
Greene had been closely tied to the Republican president since she launched her political career in 2020.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and U.S. President Donald Trump embrace in the U.S. Capitol on March 4. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/The Associated Press)
In her video, she underscored her longtime loyalty to Trump, except on a few issues, and said it was “unfair and wrong” that he attacked her for disagreeing.
“Loyalty should be a two-way street and we should be able to vote our conscience and represent our district’s interest, because our job title is literally ‘representative,'” she said.
Greene swept to office at the forefront of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement and swiftly became a lightning rod on Capitol Hill for her often beyond-mainstream views.
As she embraced the QAnon conspiracy theory and appeared with white supremacists, Greene was opposed by party leaders but welcomed by Trump. He called her “a real WINNER!”
Yet over time she proved a deft legislator, having aligned herself with then-GOP leader Kevin McCarthy, who would go on to become House Speaker. She was a trusted voice on the right flank, until McCarthy was ousted in 2023.
‘Great news,’ says Trump
Interviewed by ABC News, Trump said Greene’s resignation, to take effect on January 5, was “great news for the country. It’s great.”
Greene’s ally in the House, Representative Thomas Massie, posted on X that she “embodies what a true representative should be.”
Barbara Comstock, a former Republican House member and a Trump critic, lauded Greene’s decision on social media.
Comstock wrote that Greene doesn’t want to be “taking Trump’s abuse and getting death threats and pretending it’s all ok only to end up in the minority. Good for her.”
On the other side of the aisle, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez criticized Greene’s public transformation from Trump loyalist to critic.
“She is saying a lot but her ACTIONS have not backed up the rhetoric. For all her talk, she’s STILL voting with them to gut healthcare and advance self-dealing corruption schemes,” the Congresswoman wrote on her Instagram story.