MAGA stalwart Taylor Greene announces resignation; Trump: ‘Great news for the country’

Amid rift with US president over Epstein, Georgia Republican with history of antisemitic rhetoric says she refuses to remain in Congress as ‘battered wife’

WASHINGTON — Saying she refuses to be a “battered wife,” US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene announced Friday that she was resigning from the House of Representatives after a dramatic falling-out with US President Donald Trump, who called her resignation “great news.”

Greene’s exit marks a stunning turn of events that few would have imagined months ago.

A Georgia Republican with a history of antisemitic rhetoric, Greene was once one of Trump’s closest allies and an outspoken advocate of his “America First” agenda, but the rift between the two widened in recent months over the release of government files related to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and other matters, including support for Israel.

In a 10-minute video posted on social media, Greene said she was spurred to resign by the prospect of having to face a Trump-backed Republican primary challenger and the potential takeover of the House by Democrats in next year’s midterm elections.

She also complained that the US Congress has largely been “sidelined” since Trump returned to the presidency in January.

“I have too much self-respect and dignity, love my family way too much, and do not want my sweet district to have 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 said.

“I refuse to be a battered wife hoping it all goes away and gets better,” she added.

Greene lamented the state of American politics, contending that neither Republicans nor Democratic lawmakers were working to solve the nation’s problems, including the rising cost of living.

She said voters were tuning on Washington because “they know how much credit card debt they have, they know how much their own bills have gone up over the past five years, they actually do their own grocery shopping and know food costs too much, their rent has increasingly gone up, they have been outbid by corporate asset managers too many times when they put in an offer to buy a house.”

Interviewed by ABC News, Trump said Greene’s resignation, to take effect on January 5, was “great news for the country. It’s great.”

The public dispute between Trump and Greene had fueled concerns among some Republicans that Trump’s “Make America Great Again” base could fracture a year before the midterms, when Democrats hope to regain control of Congress.

Greene’s resignation will narrow the Republican majority in the House to 218 members over the Democrats’ 213. Republicans have a 53-47 majority in the Senate.

Greene had been increasingly exhibiting her independence from Trump, joining a House effort to force the release of the Epstein files over the objections of the president, a former friend of the disgraced sex offender financier who died by suicide in 2019 during Trump’s first term.

Greene has also blasted the House’s Republican leadership for not doing more to address healthcare costs during the recent US government shutdown, accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, and assailed the Trump-ordered US strikes on Iran during the Israel-Iran war in June.

Trump, in turn, has become more critical of Greene. Before the House voted overwhelmingly to release the Epstein files, Trump called her a “traitor” and “disgrace” to the Republican Party. He withdrew his support for Greene and called her a “ranting lunatic.”

Greene says ordinary Americans being ‘cast aside’

In her video, Greene defended her Epstein vote.

“Standing up for American women who were raped at 14, trafficked and used by rich, powerful men, should not result in me being called a traitor and threatened by the president of the United States, whom I fought for,” she said.

Greene said she was proud of her conservative voting record, adding, in a swipe at Trump, that “loyalty should be a two-way street.”

Her ally in the House, Representative Thomas Massie, posted on X that Greene “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.

“She doesn’t want to be a Republican ‘battered wife’ taking Trump’s abuse and getting death threats and pretending it’s all ok only to end up in the minority. Good for her,” Comstock posted.

Greene won her northwest Georgia district with 64% of the vote in 2024. Residents there said this week they hoped her rift with Trump would soon heal and expressed a willingness to support both of them.

But Greene made clear on Friday that she had no interest in sparring with a Trump-backed opponent.

Even if she prevailed, she said, she likely would be in the House minority after the midterms and would have to defend Trump in impeachment proceedings, a situation she called “absurd” and “completely unserious.”

“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,” she said.

Greene’s increasing independence from Trump had prompted speculation that she is lining up for her own US presidential bid in 2028, although she has dismissed it as “baseless gossip.”

Famed for her scathing comments towards Democrats and journalists, Greene had previously made her name as a fierce defender of Trump’s policies.

She has also embraced QAnon conspiracy theories about a cabal of satanic child molesters running the US, suggested Israel was involved in assassinating former US President John F. Kennedy, and in 2018 asserted that California wildfires were ignited by a space laser controlled by the Jewish Rothschild banking dynasty.

AFP and Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.