{"id":447088,"date":"2026-09-25T06:26:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T06:26:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/447088\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T06:26:19","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T06:26:19","slug":"marjorie-taylor-greene-says-maga-is-dead-calls-it-a-cult","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/447088\/","title":{"rendered":"Marjorie Taylor Greene says \u201cMAGA is dead,\u201d calls it a cult"},"content":{"rendered":"

Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy<\/a>, and give us feedback<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene chronicled her political journey from a diehard ally of the president to someone he labeled a traitor, saying \u201cMAGA is dead\u201d at The Texas Tribune Festival Thursday.<\/p>\n

Greene, who described herself as \u201cpolitically homeless\u201d in the wake of her experience, resigned her House seat earlier this year after a series of public spats with the president that escalated into death threats against her family.<\/p>\n

Despite her break from Trump, Greene called herself a believer in the America First movement that Trump coined \u2014 a series of policy preferences that she defined as a smaller coalition than the broader Make America Great Again group that backs the president. The larger MAGA movement, which she was once one of the most recognizable members, is now a \u201ccult,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you vote for someone, not only are you supporting them, but you\u2019re holding them accountable,\u201d Greene said. \u201cAnd if they can\u2019t be truthful and hold [Trump] accountable to his campaign promises that affect the entire country, then they\u2019re liars, and they\u2019re hypocrites and they\u2019re in a cult.\u201d<\/p>\n

Greene, a Georgia Republican, burst onto the political scene after winning her Northern Georgia House district in 2020 as a staunchly pro-Trump candidate who drew attention \u2014 and ire \u2014 for a series of controversial comments.<\/p>\n

Early in her career, Greene attracted headlines for slurring then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi, sharing a meme of herself with an assault rifle in front of photos of Democratic congresswomen and filing articles of impeachment against then-President Joe Biden on the second day of his presidency. About a month into her House tenure, all Democrats and eleven Republicans banded together and stripped her of committee assignments over her conduct.<\/p>\n

Greene also displayed a history of embracing conspiracy theories, from claiming that a wealthy Jewish family was behind a California wildfire to berating a Parkland school shooting survivor and claiming the shooting was a false flag operation to initially believing, before disavowing, the QAnon theory that Trump was secretly fighting an underground cabal of Satan-worshipping sex traffickers in the government.<\/p>\n

But after establishing herself as one of Trump\u2019s most ardent defenders, Greene began to turn on the president during his second term. The public rift between them began over cryptocurrency legislation and became more heated over the Epstein files, after Greene pushed for the president to release full documentation about the notorious sex trafficker even as Trump resisted doing so.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Greene also became more outspoken on policy, challenging her fellow Republicans in 2025 over the expiration of enhanced subsidies for Affordable Care Act enrollees over the party\u2019s lack of a plan to address looming healthcare insurance premium spikes.<\/p>\n

After years as allies, Trump changed his tune in the fall of 2025, calling the congresswoman Marjorie \u201cTraitor\u201d Greene. As their feud escalated, Greene announced her resignation from Congress, leaving the lower chamber in early 2026.<\/p>\n

At the festival, Greene recalled a series of fights she had with the president, including being yelled at in the Oval Office and culminating in Trump texting her that she \u201cdeserved it\u201d after her son received a death threat.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Greene said she entered Washington naive and left feeling that the political system is fundamentally broken. Many Republicans, she said, can\u2019t stand Trump privately but are unwilling to go against him given that many owe their careers to his endorsement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re terrified of that Truth Social post,\u201d she said. \u201cAbsolutely terrified of it. There\u2019s a wrath that comes with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since leaving Congress, Greene has had discussions with other conservatives who have broken with Trump \u2014 including former Fox News host Tucker Carlson and Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie \u2014 but said she doesn\u2019t see any credible 2028 candidates among those she knows considering running for president.<\/p>\n

Greene also discussed foreign policy, noting that one of Trump\u2019s stances that initially appealed to her was his willingness to call out former President George W. Bush\u2019s decision to pursue war in Iraq and the toll of foreign wars. Trump\u2019s decision to attack Iran, she said, was a betrayal of the America First movement, and she believes his presidency will be judged on his moves in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s betrayed his campaign promises,\u201d Greene said. \u201cWill he make a lasting peace deal or will he make a peace deal that he goes back on probably after the midterms?\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite her harsh criticisms for the president, the party and the movement she once belonged to, Greene emphasized that she\u2019s no liberal.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust because I\u2019m 100% against what Donald Trump is doing, and you hear me criticize the president because he changed, and Republicans have just fallen in line with him, that doesn\u2019t mean that all of a sudden I\u2019m in line with Democrat policies,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m not.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy, and give…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":447089,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2671,64,1526,287,27,29,28,154123,6748],"class_list":["post-447088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-congress","tag-events","tag-media","tag-politics","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-the-texas-tribune-festival-2026","tag-well-b-homepage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447088\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}