By James Oliphant and Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Saying she refused to be a “battered wife,” U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene announced on Friday that she was resigning from the House of Representatives after a dramatic spat with President Donald Trump.
Her release marks a stunning turn of events that few would have imagined months ago. Greene, a Republican from Georgia, was once one of Trump’s closest allies and an outspoken advocate of his “America First” agenda, but the rift between the two has widened in recent months over the release of government files related to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and other issues.
In a 10-minute video posted on social media, Greene said she was prompted to resign by the prospect of facing a Trump-backed Republican primary challenge and a potential Democratic takeover of the House in next year’s midterm elections. She also complained that Congress has largely been “sidelined” since Trump returned to the presidency in January.
RUPTURE PROMPTS MAGA BASE CONCERNS BEFORE MIDTERMS
“I have too much self-respect and dignity, I love my family too much, and I don’t want my sweet district to have to endure a hurtful primary and hatred against me from the president we all fought for, just to fight and win my election while the Republicans are probably going to lose the midterms,” Greene said.
“I refuse to be a battered woman hoping that everything will go and get better,” she added.
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 lamented the state of American politics, claiming that neither Republicans nor Democratic lawmakers were working to solve the nation’s problems, including the rising cost of living.
She said voters were rejecting Washington because “they know how much credit card debt they have, they know how much their own bills have gone up over the last five years, they actually do their own grocery shopping and they know the food is too expensive, their rent has gone up and up, they’ve been outbid by corporate asset managers many times when they’ve made an offer to buy a house.”
The public spat between Trump and Greene had raised concerns among some Republicans that Trump’s “Make America Great Again” base could crumble a year before the midterms, when Democrats hope to regain control of Congress.
Greene’s resignation will reduce the Republican majority in the House to 218 members to 213 of the Democrats. Republicans hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate.
Greene has been increasingly exhibiting her independence from Trump, joining a House effort to force the release of the Epstein files over his objections, blasting House leadership for not doing more to address health care costs during the recent government shutdown and calling Israel’s attack on Gaza genocide.
Trump, for his part, has become more critical of her.
Before the House voted overwhelmingly to release Epstein’s files, he called her a “traitor” and a “disgrace” to the Republican Party. He withdrew his support for her and called her a “ranting lunatic.”
GREENE SAYS ORDINARY AMERICANS ARE BEING FAILED”
In her video, Greene defended her Epstein vote.
“Standing up for American women who were raped at the age of 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, who 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 “captures what a true representative should be.”
Barbara Comstock, a former Republican House member and Trump critic, praised Greene’s decision on social media.
“She doesn’t want to be a Republican ‘battered wife’ who takes Trump’s abuse and receives death threats and pretends everything is fine 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. The residents there said this week that they hope that her rift with Trump will soon heal and they expressed their willingness to support both. But Greene made it clear Friday that she had no interest in sparring with a Trump-backed opponent.
Even if she wins, she said, she will probably be in the House minority after the midterms and have to defend Trump in impeachment proceedings, a situation she called “absurd” and “completely not serious”.
“If I am ousted from MAGA Inc and replaced by Neocons, Big Pharma, Big Tech, the Military Industrial War Complex, foreign leaders, and the elite donor class who can’t even relate to real Americans, then many ordinary Americans have been ousted and replaced as well,” she said.
(Reporting by James Oliphant, Kanishka Singh and David Morgan in Washington and Ismail Shakil in Ottawa; Editing by William Mallard)