In a televised interview on CBS News’ 60 Minutes, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., sharply criticized former ally President Donald Trump, accusing him of failing to prioritize domestic policy and of provoking death threats against her and her son.
Greene said an “America First” president should have put domestic issues — the promises that drove her campaign — at the top of the agenda. “For an ‘America First’ president, the No. 1 focus should have been domestic policy, and it wasn’t,” she told Lesley Stahl. She added that she prefers to call herself “America First” rather than using Trump’s “MAGA” label.
The interview came after Greene’s announced resignation from Congress in January, a year before her term ends. Her departure followed a public split with Trump and party leaders after she joined a bipartisan discharge petition that forced a House vote to release government records related to Jeffrey Epstein. The measure reached the floor, passed overwhelmingly in the House, was unanimously approved in the Senate, and was quietly signed into law by Trump.
Greene recounted clashes with Trump over the Epstein files, saying he was “extremely angry” that she had signed the petition and warned that the release would “hurt people.” She said she believes the victims “deserve everything” they are asking for and stood by the effort despite pressure. Because of Trump’s anger, Greene said she and her son received multiple death threats; she said she sent messages containing those threats to Trump and called his response “extremely unkind.” She also said she notified FBI Director Kash Patel, who replied that he was “on it,” and that Vice President J.D. Vance responded with “kindness and sympathy.”
Trump publicly derided Greene as “Marjorie Traitor Greene” after she broke with him. When Greene complained about threats, Trump dismissed the danger to her, saying he did not think her life was in danger and “I don’t think anybody cares about her,” she said.
Greene criticized what she saw as Trump’s misplaced priorities during the period he was opposing the release of the Epstein documents. She pointed to meetings he held with contentious foreign figures and with New York’s newly elected mayor, arguing those engagements occurred while he was attacking her. Greene singled out Trump’s meetings with Syrian leadership and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as examples of foreign distractions, saying those meetings occurred in the same timeframe he labeled her a traitor.
Asked whether she felt run out of town, Greene said no, adding, “I will be no one’s battered wife … and I won’t allow the system to abuse me anymore.” She also denied speculation that her break with Trump was driven by presidential ambition, saying she has “zero plans, zero desire to run for president,” and that she would not want a Senate or gubernatorial role.
The White House pushed back with a statement asserting Trump has “already delivered on many of the promises he was elected to enact,” citing border security, measures on inflation and drug prices, tax changes, deportations of criminal noncitizens, and reforms said to prioritize American workers. A White House spokeswoman reiterated that as the architect of MAGA, Trump “will always put America First” and is working to fulfill his promises.
Greene’s split with Trump reflects broader Republican concern about whether the party is doing enough to address domestic affordability issues. Some GOP lawmakers have publicly urged a stronger focus on economic concerns such as housing, food and energy costs. Trump has pointed to recent declines in gas prices and has issued an executive order directing the administration to investigate anti-competitive behavior in food supply chains.
Scott Wong is a senior congressional reporter for NBC News.