Sure, Marjorie Taylor Greene is currently on the outs with Donald Trump after spearheading the Republican revolt over the Epstein files in the House and laying into Speaker Mike Johnson for the GOP’s continued failure to present a vision for reforming the American health care system.
But Donald Trump is also famously a man who understands the value of making peace with conservatives, rather than war, when it serves his purposes.
Take Greene’s fellow Republican on the discharge petition, Rep. Nancy Mace, as an example. Trump famously endorsed against her as recently as 2022, backing a Republican state representative in a failed primary bid to unseat the one-term congresswoman. But Mace, despite her thin resume on the Hill, won re-election easily — and Trump, ever eager to back the winning horse, let her back into the fold.
Perhaps the most famous member of Trumpworld to be banished was Elon Musk, the Tesla CEO and former DOGE chief whose roughshod run of the White House in January-April of this year rankled members of Trump’s Cabinet and quickly led to the downfall of Musk’s political crusade as he became a political anchor around the necks of Republicans.
Reports of his erratic behavior and allegations of drug use were followed by a public feud with Trump and Republicans on Capitol Hill, peaking in one stunning tweet from the X/Twitter owner who wrote (and later deleted) that Trump was mentioned prominently in the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, with that being the reason for the administration’s U-turn on releasing those files.
But even as final as that breakup seemed to be, it didn’t last. A peace brokered by Trump and Musk’s advisers quickly cooled into a longer period of ended hostilities, and now Musk seems to be back on the president’s good side: he was an invited guest at this week’s dinner honoring Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS).
It may come down to whether Greene and her team are able (or interested) in extending an olive branch to the White House. So far, that hasn’t happened and the president has embarked on a largely one-sided campaign to trash Greene whenever her name is mentioned and even called her out on Truth Social, dubbing her a “traitor”.
Greene, for her part, is clearly walking a tightrope. In statements and interviews with news outlet’s the congresswoman has made clear that she sees herself as fiercely loyal to Donald Trump’s MAGA brand and even suggests that it is the president, not her, who has strayed from the path.
She outlined that view this weekend on CNN: “What the American people voted for with MAGA was to put the American people first. Stop sending foreign aid, and stop being involved in foreign wars... they very much deserve to be put first.”
State of the Union co-host Dana Bash responded: "Sounds like you are saying that he is not representing the MAGA movement that he started?"
"Promoting H-1B visas to replace American jobs, bringing in 600,000 Chinese students to replace American students’ opportunities in American colleges and universities; those are not America first positions,” the congresswoman said. “Continuing to, really, travel all over the world doesn’t help Americans back at home.”
She added that she wanted to see “nothing but a constant focus in the White House on a domestic agenda”.
But as The Washington Post reported on Thursday, voters in Greene’s district want the two to come back together, something they see as a real possibility.
“I love Mom, and I love Dad, and I know that deep down they love each other,” Jackie Harling, Republican Party chair for Walker County, Georgia told the Post. “I want Mom and Dad to make up. And I think they will.”
Jim Tully, chair of the local GOP district committee, told his fellow Republicans at a recent meeting according to the Post: “We got Donald Trump trying to take care of the world...Got Marjorie Taylor Greene trying to take care of the country.”
Whether it will be Trump or Greene who blinks first, no one can say. It may well come down to whether Greene can survive her next election cycle; even with Trump insinuating that he’d back a primary challenger against her, local Republican officials told the Post that like Mace, a challenge against Greene would be an uphill battle.
One thing to consider: Trump, as a lame duck, is now trying to steer the future of the MAGA movement and is preparing to anoint a successor in 2028. But if MAGA remains divided over issues like Jeffrey Epstein and the price hikes crushing American voters in seemingly every sector of the economy, Greene and her rebel cohorts could be well positioned to have a greater say in that vision than they would otherwise.
