Once one of President Donald Trump’s most loyal supporters, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) has become one of his most outspoken critics. Their feud reached a fever pitch on Friday night when Trump took to Truth Social to announce he had withdrawn his support and endorsement from the Georgia congresswoman.
In his incendiary missive, Trump listed his administration’s many achievements to date and lamented, “All I see ‘Wacky’ Marjorie do is COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN! It all seemed to begin when I sent her a poll showing that she should not run for senator or governor — she was at 12% and didn’t have a chance.”
Minutes later, Greene returned fire on X. She insisted Trump was angry over her support to release the Epstein files, writing, “And of course he’s coming after me hard to make an example to scare all the other Republicans before next weeks vote to release the Epstein files. It’s astonishing really how hard he’s fighting to stop the Epstein files from coming out that he actually goes to this level.”
On Monday morning, Trump called her bluff, telling House Republicans they “should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide.” Mary covered this story here.
Despite Greene’s insistence that her clash with Trump began over the Epstein files, the rift appears to have started after he sent her private polling on how she might fare in a potential Georgia Senate or gubernatorial run.
During a CNN panel discussion on Sunday’s State of the Union, analyst Scott Jennings shed some light on why those polls may have upset Greene so much: the Senate survey showed her trailing Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) by a staggering 20 points. It’s one thing to lose an election; it’s another to be publicly humiliated.
Here’s what Jennings told his colleagues:
[Trump] didn’t tell her not to run [for Senate]. What she didn’t say was that he sent her a poll privately, discreetly, and it had information in it. And it showed her down 20 points to Sen. Jon Ossoff.In politics, when you want to send a message to someone that you like or that has been an ally, you don’t embarrass them publicly. You privately send them information and show them what the reality is.I think it’s true that he didn’t tell her not to run, but it’s also true that he did her a big favor, which is to show her information that a candidacy statewide in Georgia for her would have been a disaster.
Greene may have been positioned to win the Republican nomination for the Senate race, but the poll pointed to a devastating loss to Ossoff in the general election. Such a defeat would have been humiliating for Greene and damaging to both Georgia Republicans and the party’s hopes of maintaining a Senate majority.
Aside from Trump’s remark in his Friday night Truth Social post that Greene was polling at 12%, earlier reports indicated only that the private polling showed her losing to Ossoff. They did not reveal just how large the margin might be until Jennings’s disclosure.
Greene has taken her clash with Trump to such extremes that any path to reconciliation now seems remote. Their widening rift offers Democrats a ready-made opening as they work relentlessly to reclaim the House in 2026. And while Greene is hardly a political heavyweight, she remains perfectly capable of creating headaches for both Trump and the Republican Party—an unwelcome prospect heading into a pivotal midterm election cycle.
Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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