Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to resign in January

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., announced on Friday that she is resigning from her seat, following weeks of clashing with President Donald Trump.

“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,” Greene said in a statement posted to social media.

“Until then 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. I will be resigning from office with my last day being January 5, 2026,” she wrote.

The stunning announcement comes one week after Trump officially declared he had had enough with Greene’s increasing criticism of him and said he was withdrawing support from his longtime ally.

Trump called her “wacky” and suggested he was open to backing a primary challenger against her.

Until recently, Greene — who said Trump had inspired her to first run for Congress — had been one of the president’s most outspoken allies in Congress. But in recent weeks, she began to break from him on issues including the release of files related to Jeffrey Epstein, his stance on the war in Gaza, extending Obamacare subsidies and, broadly, whether he was still the “America First” president the base believed in.

Greene was first elected to office in 2020. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp will have to call a special election sometime in 2026 to fill Greene’s heavily Republican district, which she carried by 29 points last year.

In her resignation message Friday, Greene said she did not want her district to endure a “hurtful and hateful primary” led by Trump.

“I have too much self respect and dignity, love my family way too much, and do not want my sweet district to endure a hurtful and hateful primary against me by the President we all fought for, only to fight and win my election while Republicans will likely lose the midterms,” Greene wrote.

Greene, known for talking to reporters in the halls of Congress, on Friday declined to speak with NBC News, saying she was not doing hallway interviews that day.

During an interview last month with NBC News amid the government shutdown, Greene did not give a definitive answer when asked if she was committed to running for re-election to the House.

“Oh, certainly I haven’t, I haven’t made any things like that,” Greene said. “I don’t, honestly, I don’t even think about it right now. I’m just like, damn it, why aren’t we back at work?”

Greene’s pushback against Trump and fellow Republicans in recent weeks has fueled speculation about her future political ambitions. She dismissed a report by NOTUS earlier this month that said she was interested in a presidential bid in 2028.

“Marjorie Taylor Greene is having a moment,” Ryan Girdusky, a conservative consultant, said in an interview last week with NBC News. “She’s having a rebrand, and she’s doing very, very good. She’s been really, really talented in the moment.”

Speaking about the GOP’s losses in the off-year elections, Greene said Republicans were lacking motivation to vote.

“A lot of Republican voters who turned out big in 2024 feel disenfranchised right now and don’t feel motivated to go vote,” Greene said.

Greene’s decision will create even more headaches for House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., with a shrinking House Republican majority, which currently stands at 219 seats to Democrats’ 213. By the time Greene resigns, there will have been a Tennessee special election in December for a seat that the GOP is favored to win, but where Democrats see an outside chance. And there are two more special elections in blue-leaning seats that Democrats are heavily favored to hold early next year.

Greene did not give Johnson a heads-up about her resignation, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told NBC News. While the two did not have a good relationship, with Greene filing a motion last year to oust Johnson as speaker, members would typically provide their party’s leadership some type of advance notice about an announcement of this magnitude.

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., another Republican who has drawn Trump’s ire after disagreeing with his agenda, expressed support for Greene on social media Friday night.

“I’m very sad for our country but so happy for my friend Marjorie. I’ll miss her tremendously. She embodies what a true Representative should be. Everyone should read her statement; there’s more honesty expressed in these four pages than most politicians will speak in a lifetime,” Massie wrote, reposting Greene’s statement with her resignation.

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., who partnered with Greene to force the release of the Epstein files said she could still have a bright future in politics.

“MTG is likely to be a formidable 2028 candidate,” Khanna told NBC News Friday night. “Her stances on Epstein, on regulating AI, and anti-war is more in touch with MAGA voters than JD Vance.”