Marjorie Taylor Greene. Photo: Collected

WASHINGTON, Nov 22, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - US lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Greene, an 
influential right-wing figure and MAGA acolyte who recently broke with 
President Donald Trump, announced she is quitting her seat in Congress, 
prompting him to double down on Saturday on accusations she is a "traitor."

In a video posted online, the 51-year-old Republican congresswoman from 
Georgia, who was elected in 2020, said on Friday she had "always been 
despised in Washington DC and never fit in."

Greene said she did not want her supporters and family to endure "a hurtful 
and hateful primary against me by the President we all fought for, only to 
fight and win my election while Republicans will likely lose the midterms."

"I will be resigning from office with my last day being January 5, 2026," she 
said.

Trump responded on his Truth Social platform by referring to the lawmaker as 
Marjorie "Traitor" Brown, a label she had singled out as unacceptable in an 
explanation of her decision to step away.

"For some reason, primarily that I refused to return her never ending barrage 
of phone calls, Marjorie went BAD," he said in the post early on Saturday 
morning.

The shock move by Greene was the clearest sign yet of a growing split in MAGA 
world, still churning over strong Democratic victories in this month's off-
year elections, including the win for leftist New York mayor-elect Zohran 
Mamdani -- who had a chummy meeting with Trump Friday.

The movement has been particularly riven over Trump's flip-flop on releasing 
emails related to the case of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Epstein, a wealthy financier, moved in elite circles for years, cultivating 
close ties with business tycoons, politicians, academics and celebrities to 
whom he was accused of trafficking girls and young women for sex.

The Epstein affair appeared to have forced the break between Trump and Greene 
-- something she referenced in her resignation speech.

"Standing up for American women who were raped at 14, trafficked and used by 
rich powerful men should not result in me being called a traitor and 
threatened by the President of the United States, whom I fought for," Greene 
said.

Trump ended his Truth Social post by saying: "Nevertheless, I will always 
appreciate Marjorie, and thank her for her service to our Country!"

- 'A two-way street' -

Just this week, Congress passed and the president signed a law requiring 
government records on the millionaire sex predator to be made public, after 
months of Trump trying to keep a lid on the material.

But before his about-face on the issue, the president announced he was 
withdrawing all support for "'Wacky' Marjorie," a vocal proponent of the 
release of the so-called Epstein files.

He followed up the following morning with multiple posts on his Truth Social 
platform attacking Greene as a "lightweight" and even a "traitor" to the 
Republican Party.

The former key political ally to Trump subsequently said she was being 
targeted by a wave of threats.

Greene had previously been a standard-bearer of Trump's Make America Great 
Again (MAGA) movement, a proponent of immigrant deportation, champion of gun 
rights and a vaccine skeptic.

The high-profile rupture came after Greene distanced herself from the 
president, who has faced growing criticism over US cost of living concerns 
and the Epstein scandal.

Trump himself had campaigned on releasing the Epstein files, delighting a 
political base fervent about throwing a spotlight on the scandal and 
convinced that doing so would expose many powerful figures.

Greene's sudden shift away from Trump prompted speculation that she is lining 
up for her own presidential bid in 2028, although she dismissed it as 
"baseless gossip."

Her resignation comes halfway through her third term in the US House of 
Representatives. In her resignation speech, she did not say what she will do 
next.

"Her split with Trump made her an even bigger national sensation," observed 
the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Georgia's biggest newspaper, in its 
coverage of her resignation.

Greene said she "fought harder than almost any other elected Republican to 
elect Donald Trump and Republicans," spending "millions" of her own money 
along the way -- comparing herself with "establishment Republicans who 
secretly hate him and who stabbed him in the back."

"My voting record has been solidly with my party and the president," Greene 
said. "Loyalty should be a two-way street."