- Trump publicly rebukes Marjorie Taylor Greene, calling her a "nice woman" who has "lost her way" over her criticisms.
- Greene criticized Trump's foreign-focused agenda amid a government shutdown, urging action on soaring healthcare costs and ACA subsidies.
- The spat highlights widening GOP rifts and risks alienating MAGA supporters as party unity frays during the shutdown.
In a stunning turn of events, though not entirely unexpected, that has sent shockwaves through Republican circles, President Donald Trump unleashed a personal broadside against one of his fiercest defenders, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, during a White House ceremony on Monday.
Labeling the Georgia firebrand a “nice woman” who has inexplicably “lost her way,” Trump expressed bewilderment and frustration over Greene’s recent barrage of criticisms aimed at his administration’s foreign policy priorities—criticisms that come at a precarious moment with the federal government mired in a deepening shutdown.
The confrontation unfolded in the Oval Office as Trump hosted Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa for a historic closed-door meeting, the first such visit by a Syrian leader in nearly eight decades.
The FrankNez Media Daily Briefing newsletter provides all the news you need to start your day. Sign up here.
Flanked by reporters, Trump was pressed on Greene’s pointed social media post from earlier in the day, where the congresswoman lamented the White House’s “nonstop meetings… on domestic policy not foreign policy and foreign country’s leaders.”
In her post, Greene called for urgent action on soaring healthcare costs, urging Trump to “haul in the health insurance company’s executives” to craft a Republican alternative to Obamacare and the Affordable Care Act’s tax credits, which she blamed for “skyrocketed” premiums.
Trump, visibly taken aback, didn’t hold back. “I don’t know what happened to Marjorie. Nice woman, but she’s lost her way,” he told reporters, shaking his head in apparent disbelief.
He doubled down moments later, adding, “I’m surprised at her,” and suggesting she was pulling “some kind of an act going” by “catering to the other side.”
The president defended his globe-trotting agenda— which includes roughly one foreign leader meeting per week and recent tours of Europe, the Middle East, and Asia even as federal workers go unpaid amid the shutdown—by framing the presidency as inherently global.
“I have to view the presidency as a worldwide situation, not locally,” Trump said.
“And we could have a world that’s on fire where wars come to our shores very easily.”
“When somebody like Marjorie goes over and starts making statements like that, it shows she doesn’t know,” he continued, pivoting to tout domestic wins like the massive Republican reconciliation package dubbed the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” passed earlier this year to overhaul taxes and spending.
A Fractured Alliance: From MAGA Darling to Policy Thorn
Greene, 51, rocketed to national prominence as Trump’s unyielding cheerleader, leveraging her bombastic style and unfiltered defenses of his agenda to become a GOP superstar.
She headlined his 2022 rallies, posed for photos with him alongside conservative icons like Tucker Carlson at Mar-a-Lago golf events, and even survived a near-expulsion from Congress after the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot—thanks in no small part to Trump’s intervention.
But in recent months, cracks have widened into fissures.
Greene has grown increasingly vocal about what she sees as the party’s abandonment of “America First” principles, particularly on pocketbook issues hitting working families hardest.
Her latest salvo builds on a pattern of breaks with Trump.
Just last week, during a surprise appearance on ABC’s The View—a venue once anathema to her—she stunned hosts by refusing to pledge unconditional loyalty in potential future GOP infighting and called for “women of maturity” across the aisle to bridge divides.
Days earlier, she joined CNN’s Pamela Brown and Wolf Blitzer to blame Trump’s foreign entanglements for distracting from domestic crises like expiring ACA subsidies that could leave millions without affordable insurance.
In an August interview with the Daily Mail, Greene laid bare her disillusionment: “I don’t know if the Republican Party is leaving me, or if I’m kind of not relating to Republican Party as much anymore… I think the Republican Party has turned its back on America First and the workers and just regular Americans.”
This media blitz—unprecedented for the once-boycotted congresswoman—has earned her unlikely praise from Democrats, including nods from progressive lawmakers who see her rhetoric echoing their calls for healthcare reform.
Even former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whom Greene once branded an “evil woman” in Trump’s parlance, drew rare admiration from the Georgian for her “ability to get things done.”
Shutdown Shadows and GOP Infighting
The timing couldn’t be more fraught.
The government shutdown has furloughed tens of thousands and amplified public anxiety over inflation and living costs—issues Greene has hammered relentlessly.
Her post criticizing Trump’s Syrian sit-down arrived hours before the meeting, which Trump hailed as a diplomatic coup to stabilize the Middle East.
Yet for many in her district and across red America, it’s a stark symbol of misplaced priorities.
Greene’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Trump’s remarks.
But in a recent Fox News interview, she brushed off potential rifts, saying it’s “OK” if Trump disagrees with her—as long as the focus stays on delivering for constituents.
Political analysts see this dust-up as a microcosm of deeper GOP tensions.
“Marjorie Taylor Greene isn’t just criticizing policy; she’s signaling a populist revolt against the establishment wing,” said Sarah Longwell, a Republican strategist and co-host of the Bulwark podcast.
“Trump’s response shows how thin-skinned he can be when former allies go rogue—it risks alienating the MAGA base she still commands.”
As the shutdown drags on, with no end in sight to bipartisan negotiations, this public spat raises questions about unity in Trump’s second term.
Also Read: A DOJ Whistleblower Now Makes Revelation That Undermines the Judicial System’s Integrity
