Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia mounted a forceful defense of her record on Tuesday after President Donald Trump labeled her a “traitor,” escalating an unusually public rupture between the president and one of his most prominent early allies on Capitol Hill.
Trump’s criticism came after Greene refused to withdraw her name from a discharge petition seeking the release of files connected to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and openly challenged aspects of Trump’s foreign policy. Speaking with reporters, Trump described Greene as a “traitor,” a characterization that the congresswoman swiftly rejected.
Appearing at the Capitol alongside victims of Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation, Greene cast herself as a defender of the vulnerable and an advocate for the America First agenda she says she championed on Trump’s behalf. “I was called a traitor by a man that I fought for five, no actually six years for,” she said. “And I gave him my loyalty for free … I’ve never owed him anything, but I fought for him for the policies and for America First. And he called me a traitor for standing with these women and refusing to take my name off the discharge petition.”
Greene framed the dispute in sharper terms, drawing a distinction between what she considers true patriotism and what she called self-serving behavior. “Let me tell you what a traitor is. A traitor is an American that serves foreign countries and themselves. A patriot is an American that serves the United States of America and Americans like the women standing behind me,” she said.
The clash surfaced after Trump announced Friday that he was withdrawing his support for Greene over what he described as her “antics,” promising to back any prospective primary challenger in Georgia. Greene, however, has insisted her break with Trump stems solely from the Epstein matter. In an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday, she said, “Unfortunately, it has all come down to the Epstein files. And that is shocking. I stand with these women, I stand with rape victims. I stand with children who are in terrible sex abuse situations, and I stand with survivors of trafficking and those that are trapped in sex trafficking. And I will not apologize for that.”
Greene used the same interview to express contrition about her own past rhetoric, acknowledging her role in what she called the nation’s increasingly corrosive political climate. “I would like to say, humbly, I’m sorry for taking part in the toxic politics; it’s very bad for our country,” she said.
The public sparring continued over the weekend, when Trump rolled out a new nickname for Greene — “Lightweight Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Brown” — on his Truth Social platform and accused her of betraying the Republican Party by morphing into a Republican In Name Only.
Greene responded by saying she has faced rising threats to her safety, which she attributed to the increasingly heated rhetoric surrounding the dispute. She said the threats were “being fueled and egged on by the most powerful man in the world.”
The confrontation marks a striking turn in the relationship between Trump and one of his most visible supporters, underscoring tensions within a party where loyalty to the president remains a powerful yet increasingly contested force.
[READ MORE: Trump Says He Will Sign Legislation Releasing Epstein Files, Calls Controversy a “Democrat Problem”]
