In a high-profile interview, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., bashed President Donald Trump, accusing her onetime political ally-turned-foe of inciting dying threats towards her and her son and failing to stay as much as his marketing campaign pledge to concentrate on enhancing the lives of People.
“For an ‘America First’ president, the No. 1 focus ought to have been home coverage, and it wasn’t. And so, in fact, I used to be vital, as a result of these have been my marketing campaign guarantees,” Greene mentioned in an interview that aired Sunday on CBS Information’ “60 Minutes.” “As soon as we repair all the things right here, then high quality, we’ll speak to the remainder of the world.”
Later, CBS Information’ Lesley Stahl requested Greene: “Are you MAGA?”
“I’m America First. … MAGA is President Trump’s phrase. That’s his political insurance policies,” Greene mentioned, referring to Trump’s signature motto, “Make America Nice Once more.” “I name myself America First.”
Different Republicans, on and off Capitol Hill, have expressed frustration that Trump and the GOP aren’t doing sufficient to handle People’ considerations about affordability. However in latest days, Trump has pointed to decrease gasoline costs, and he issued an government order directing his administration to research anti-competitive conduct that might have an effect on meals provide chains.
“In a short while, President Trump has already delivered on most of the guarantees he was elected to enact. He’s secured the border; tackled Biden’s inflation disaster; lowered drug costs; ended taxes on suggestions, time beyond regulation, and social safety; cooled inflation; deported felony unlawful aliens; applied vital reforms placing American staff first; and extra,” White Home spokeswoman Abigail Jackson mentioned in an announcement Sunday night time.
“Because the architect of the MAGA motion, President Trump will all the time put America First. Each single day he’s working laborious to proceed fulfilling the various guarantees he made and he’ll proceed delivering,” she mentioned.
Greene spoke to “60 Minutes” on the heels of her surprising announcement final month that she’s going to resign from workplace in January, a full 12 months earlier than her time period ends. Her determination got here after she broke with Trump and different occasion leaders and signed a bipartisan discharge petition that compelled a profitable vote within the Home to compel the discharge of the federal government’s information on Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump slammed Greene, a conservative hard-liner who at one level had been one in every of his most vocal defenders on Capitol Hill, as “Marjorie Traitor Greene.” When Greene complained that she was receiving dying threats due to Trump, he dismissed her worries: “I don’t assume her life is in peril. … I don’t assume anyone cares about her.”
Within the “60 Minutes” interview, Greene mentioned that as Trump was combating the discharge of the Epstein information and calling her a traitor, he was taking conferences with controversial international leaders and New York’s mayor-elect, Zohran Mamdani.
“He did this in the identical time span the place President Trump introduced within the Al Qaeda chief that was needed by the U.S. authorities, who’s now the president of Syria. Then, inside per week, he introduced within the Crown Prince MBS, who murdered an American journalist,” Greene mentioned referring to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. “After which he introduced within the newly elected Democrat socialist mayor of New York. That was the time span that he referred to as me a traitor.”
When Stahl requested whether or not Trump had run her out of city, Greene replied: “No, in no way. … I shall be nobody’s battered spouse … and I received’t enable the system to abuse me anymore.”
Greene recounted a telephone name during which Trump tried to influence her to again off the discharge petition effort involving the Epstein information.
“We did speak concerning the Epstein information, and he was extraordinarily offended at me that I had signed the discharge petition to launch the information,” she instructed Stahl. “I totally imagine that these ladies deserve all the things they’re asking. They’re asking for all of it to return out; they deserve it. And he was livid with me. … He mentioned it was going to harm folks.”
In the long run, Greene and three different Home Republicans didn’t cave below stress from Trump. The Epstein invoice acquired to the ground, and all however one Home member voted for Trump’s Justice Division to launch the information; the Senate handed the invoice unanimously, and Trump quietly signed it into legislation.
However due to Trump’s ire, Greene mentioned, she and her son confronted quite a few dying threats. She mentioned she despatched Trump messages she had obtained threatening her son’s life and described Trump’s response as “extraordinarily unkind.”
She elaborated about their alternate in a thread on X earlier Sunday, saying Trump “responded with harsh accusatory replies and 0 sympathy.”
“I additionally despatched these threats to [FBI] Director Kash Patel and fortunately he responded with ‘on it’ and I despatched these threats to Vice President JD Vance who responded promptly with kindness and sympathy,” Greene posted on X.
Within the “60 Minutes” interview, Greene rejected hypothesis that her very public break with Trump is as a result of she needs to run for president in 2028.
“I’ve zero plans, zero want to run for president. I might hate the Senate. I’m not operating for governor,” Greene mentioned. “However, Lesley, it doesn’t matter what number of occasions I say it, I’ll have face-to-face conversations with folks, and I’ll flat-out inform them to their face, they usually received’t imagine me.
“They usually’re like, ‘Oh yeah, positive.’ Wink, wink. And I’m, like, I don’t know methods to make it extra clear.”
