Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene unexpectedly announced she will resign from Congress a year before her term ends after President Trump said he would back another candidate. Once a staunch and vocal defender of Trump, Greene says their relationship has turned bitter and public.
The rupture accelerated over Greene’s push to release court files related to Jeffrey Epstein. She says she signed a discharge petition to make the records public because survivors “deserve everything” and need a chance to be heard. According to Greene, Trump reacted angrily, warning her that “people will get hurt.” She told Lesley Stahl on 60 Minutes that Trump called her a “traitor” and a “lunatic.” After he publicly denounced her, Greene says she received a pipe-bomb threat at her home and multiple death threats aimed at her son. She alleges the threats repeated the president’s words — “Marjorie Traitor Greene.” Greene says she informed Trump and allies such as J.D. Vance, but received only a lukewarm response and an unkind private message from Trump.
Trump’s public dismissal — saying he didn’t think her life was in danger and that “I don’t think anybody cares about her” — underscored the split. Greene notes that she once voted with Trump 98% of the time, but their alliance frayed as she began to publicly criticize his positions on foreign policy, his support for Israel, a crypto bill she says favored donors, and what she describes as prioritizing big industries over “America First” voters.
In her resignation video Greene accused Trump and what she calls the MAGA political machine of being supplanted by “NeoCons, big pharma, big tech, military industrial war complex, foreign leaders and the elite donor class.” She argued to Stahl that an America First president should focus on domestic priorities rather than foreign entanglements.
Three weeks before the 60 Minutes interview, Greene appeared on CNN and offered a rare mea culpa: “I would like to say humbly I’m sorry for taking part in the toxic politics.” Still, she has not abandoned confrontation. On 60 Minutes she pushed back when Stahl suggested she helped create a toxic political climate and rejected what she saw as accusatory questioning.
Greene also criticized congressional dysfunction, saying the failure to pass spending bills hurts her district’s ability to fund local projects. Before entering politics she ran her family’s construction company and a CrossFit gym; she highlights affordability and health insurance as top priorities and even sided with Democrats during a shutdown fight to extend health-care subsidies.
On foreign policy and Israel, Greene has become an outlier in the Republican caucus. She is the only House Republican to call the Gaza war a genocide and voted against the Antisemitism Awareness Act, arguing Congress has repeatedly condemned antisemitism and that she refused to “get on our knees and say it over and over again.” She accused some members of supporting repeated measures because they accept donations from AIPAC, saying she does not take those donations.
When asked whether she is MAGA, Greene balked at the label and called herself “America First,” drawing a distinction from Trump’s branding. Her break with Trump has made her one of the few Republicans openly critical of him; she says many colleagues privately mock Trump or her past support, but after his 2024 primary victory they publicly embraced MAGA to avoid his ire, “terrified to step outta line and get a nasty Truth Social post on them.”
Despite the controversy, Greene remains popular at public events in her Georgia district even after dropping the MAGA cap. When Stahl suggested her resignation or softened rhetoric might be a political maneuver before seeking another office, Greene insisted she has “zero plans, zero desire” to run for president, Senate, or governor and said she’s not a career politician with a set itinerary.
The interview frames a dramatic reversal: a combative congresswoman who once stood among Trump’s most ardent allies now portraying herself as expelled from the movement she helped build, alleging the president’s words put her and her family at risk and accusing the broader GOP of fear and cowardice in the face of Trump’s influence.
Produced by Denise Schrier Cetta. Associate producers: Elizabeth Germino, Jinsol Jung, Collette Richards. Broadcast associate: Aria Een. Edited by Sean Kelly and Thomas Xenakis.