MTG Resigns After Spat With Trump
Marjorie Taylor Greene has had enough of Washington, the Uniparty, and the infighting she helped fuel. What happens next for her and for the GOP?
Marjorie Taylor Greene, the feisty MAGA representative from North Georgia, has announced her resignation from Congress, effective January 5, 2026. After seeing her video, the first question I have is a serious one: Why is her Christmas tree up already when it’s not even Thanksgiving yet?
Okay, kidding (mostly) aside, Greene’s resignation after five years in Congress prompts numerous questions for the Republican Party. At the same time, it could be little more than a ripple in the grand scheme of things — by which I mean that a Democrat is not about to win GA-14.
“I believe in term limits and do not think Congress should be a lifelong career or an assisted living facility,” Greene wrote. That’s a funny line, but why resign before her term is up? Why cheat the people in her district, whom she claims to love and represent, by getting out of Dodge halfway through the term she was elected to serve?
On second thought, maybe I should be asking why she’s waiting until January 5. Well, Greene’s generous congressional pension becomes fully vested on January 3.
Oh.
Republican Governor Brian Kemp will call a special election within 10 days of the vacancy, but the seat will remain empty for at least a couple of months, robbing House Speaker Mike Johnson of a critical vote in a razor-thin majority.
MTG’s resignation came just days after President Donald Trump personally threw her under the MAGA Express, calling her, among other things, a “traitor” and a “ranting Lunatic.” She had earned it, of course, by becoming increasingly vocal against Trump’s priorities and actions in office to the point where Trump and others were wondering if she wouldn’t be a better fit on the other side of the aisle. On the other hand, Trump is a “ranting Lunatic” sometimes himself, so maybe it takes one to know one.
For better or worse, President Trump sets GOP priorities, and a single representative isn’t going to win that fight.
In a human sense, though, her statement included something with which I sympathize: “I … 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. And in turn, be expected to defend the President against impeachment after he hatefully dumped tens of millions of dollars against me and tried to destroy me.”
That’s politics, but it’s not insane to say, “No thanks.”
If she has honestly faced death threats after Trump’s “traitor” condemnation, then she shouldn’t have to put up with that either.
Greene invested a lot in Trump — for example, showing personal loyalty to the point of showing up at his New York trial when few other Republicans did. The sudden souring of their relationship has been both spectacular and completely normal for people in Trump’s orbit.
As our Douglas Andrews noted after Greene issued her statement, she listed five specific issues on which she’s disagreed with Trump of late: over-issuance of H-1B visas, which she says take American jobs; state-level AI moratoriums, which she believes encroach on states rights; 50-year mortgages, which she called a debt-for-life scam; our involvement in foreign wars, which is code for Trump’s military support for Israel; and the release of the Epstein files, for which I suspect she feels some vindication. What’s interesting is that Trump is recognized as a populist president, but MTG is on the populist side in each of these five issues.
That said, Greene leans far too hard into the Uniparty idea of hers, as if there’s no difference between the parties. Sometimes, that certainly seems true. Or at least it’s true that Republicans are frustratingly ineffective at truly distinguishing themselves from Democrats. Yet Greene is simply not correct that “the results are always the same — nothing ever gets better for the common American man or woman.” So far, Trump’s second term has been far short of the economic turnaround people hoped for, but his first term demonstrably improved people’s lives. So did making his first-term tax cuts permanent in this second term.
Remember, no Democrats voted to cut your taxes.
As for Trump and Greene’s relationship, Trump said on Saturday that he was open to reconciliation. “Sure, why not?” he responded to a reporter’s question. “I mean, I get along with everybody.”
He added, “I said, ‘Go your own way,’ and once I left her, she resigned. She would never have survived the primary, but I think she’s a nice person.”
Right. Also on Saturday, Trump posted on Truth Social, “The Republican Party has never been so UNITED AS IT iS RIGHT NOW! Other than Rand Paul, Rand Paul Jr.(Massie!), Marjorie ‘Traitor’ Brown, and a couple of other ‘lowlifes,’ and other than the fact that many want the Election threatening Filibuster TERMINATED (the Dems will do it in the first minute of their first chance!), and some don’t, there is great spirit and cohesion.”
Actually, there are increasing signs that the MAGA movement Trump built is unravelling a bit. Something tells me that when MTG starts her own podcast, she’ll contribute a little more to that fraying. For example, she name-dropped the dreaded “Neocons” toward the end of her resignation statement, though she seems to define that as conservatives who want America to engage with the world or, more specifically, support Israel.
That’s not the correct definition, but maybe she and Tucker Carlson know that.
In any case, the Republican Party doesn’t have long to figure out what it stands for in the 2026 midterms and beyond.
