Former MAGA loyalist Marjorie Taylor Greene says Trump policies are not America First

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene | Courtesy: CBS

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who voted with President Trump 98% of the time before her relationship with him fractured, accused the president in a recent interview with 60 Minutes of forsaking his base.

The Georgia representative has recently split with the president on a number of issues, including affordability and foreign affairs. She said she believes he’s failed to keep domestic  policy as his top priority. In her resignation video, Greene said the president has forsaken the MAGA base, specifically pointing to his support of the crypto and pharmaceutical industries.

“Those are the areas that are still getting everything they want, while the people, we’re still out here saying, ‘We want to see action on areas for the American people, not for the major industries and the big donors,'” Greene said.

Greene accuses Trump of betraying MAGA, America First promises
Mr. Trump has called affordability a “hoax” created by Democrats, but Greene said it’s a real issue in her district and across the country. The affordability of health insurance caused Greene to side with the Democrats during the government shutdown in support of extending health care subsidies.

The Georgia representative said she never imagined she would be standing with Democrats on the Affordable Care Act subsidies.

Greene is also the only Republican member of Congress to publicly characterize the war in Gaza as a “genocide” and she has also voted against the Antisemitism Awareness Act. She said she’s voted to denounce antisemitism before.

“It becomes an exercise that they force on Congress, and I simply got tired of it,” she said, later adding, “We don’t have to get on our knees and say it over and over again.”

Greene is one of the few Republicans willing to take on Mr. Trump.

“I think they’re terrified to step out of line and get a nasty Truth Social post on them,” she said of Congressional Republicans.

Greene said she’s seen colleagues who previously made fun of the president pivot to “kissing his ass” and wearing a MAGA hat.

Greene, who’s worn a MAGA hat many times before, said she’s America First.

“MAGA is President Trump’s phrase. That’s his, his political policies. I call myself America First,” she said.

Greene criticizes Trump on Epstein

Greene said the president was “extremely angry” that she signed the discharge petition backing the release of files concerning Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender accused of trafficking girls as young as 14.

“He said that it was going to hurt people,” she said. “I had asked him, ‘These women are the ones that were hurt. They were raped at 14. They were raped at 16. I watched them stand in front of the press trembling, their bodies shaking as they were telling their stories, many of them for the first time.’ And I had told him, I said, ‘You know, you have all kinds of people come in the White House, have these women come in the White House. These women deserve to be heard.'”

How Greene says Trump responded to death threats against her, her son

Greene said she’s received death threats for a long time, but that things took a turn after Mr. Trump called Greene a “lunatic” and a “traitor.”

“He did this in the same time span where President Trump brought in the al Qaeda leader once wanted by the U.S. government, who is now the president of Syria,” into the White House, Greene said. “Then within a week, he brought in the crown prince, MBS, who murdered an American journalist. And then he brought in the newly elected Democrat Socialist mayor of New York.”

Greene said there was a pipe bomb threat to her home after the president called her a traitor. Then there were several direct threats to her son.

“The subject line for the direct death threats on my son was his words, ‘Marjorie Traitor Greene.’ Those were death threats,” she said.

Greene said she told the president and vice president what happened. Vice President JD Vance replied that they would look into it, and the president sent a response that “wasn’t very nice,” Greene said.

“It was extremely unkind,” she said.

What’s next for MTG

Greene’s split from Mr. Trump and her decision to resign does not seem to have cost her popularity in her home district. She was greeted by supporters at a recent public hearing.

Greene refuted reports that she’s planning to run for president, saying she has “zero desire” to campaign for the position.

“I would hate the Senate. I’m not running for governor,” she told 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl. “And I’ll have face to face conversations with people and I’ll flat out tell them to their face, and they won’t believe me. And they’re like, ‘Oh yeah, sure.’ They’ll wink at me and I’m like ‘OK.’ It’s like, I don’t know how to make it more clear.”

Greene said she doesn’t know what’s next for her.

“Surprise, surprise,” she said. “I’m not your politician with a whole itinerary of plans or political ambitions.”