Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia introduced on X Friday she is going to resign from Congress early subsequent yr, after a weekslong falling-out with President Trump and far of her social gathering.
Her final day might be Jan. 5, 2026, Greene mentioned.
In a press release, the hard-right congresswoman expressed frustration together with her social gathering and with the change of tempo in Congress, writing that GOP management had refused to work on addressing well being care prices, and payments that she drafted on immigration and different points had sat “accumulating mud.” She mentioned the “legislature has been largely sidelined.”
She additionally pointed to her dramatic break with Mr. Trump. The president pulled his assist from Greene final week, calling her “wacky” and a “traitor” after she criticized Republicans’ dealing with of a number of points. She has claimed that Mr. Trump was set off by her push to reveal information associated to the late convicted intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein, which the president beforehand opposed earlier than endorsing and later signing a invoice to launch the information this week.
“Standing up for American ladies who had been raped at 14, trafficked and utilized by wealthy highly effective males, shouldn’t lead to me being known as a traitor and threatened by the President of america, whom I fought for,” Greene wrote, saying her “self price just isn’t outlined by a person, however as a substitute by God.”
On Mr. Trump’s risk to again a major challenger in her deep-red district, Greene mentioned: “I’ve an excessive amount of self respect and dignity, love my household approach an excessive amount of, and don’t want my candy district to should endure a hurtful and hateful major in opposition to me by the President all of us fought for, solely to combat and win my election whereas Republicans will lose the midterms.”
“It is all so absurd and utterly unserious,” she mentioned. “I refuse to be a ‘battered spouse’ hoping all of it goes away and will get higher.”
In latest days, Trump’s political operation had been receiving inquiries from potential Republican contenders to problem Greene, a GOP supply conversant in the state of affairs advised CBS Information.
In a assertion posted to X, Georgia GOP Chairman Josh McKoon known as Greene a “tireless fighter.”
“Whereas her determination to step down from Congress efficient January 5 comes as a shock amid latest challenges, her legacy as a daring voice for the grassroots will endure,” he mentioned.
If Greene’s resignation leaves her seat vacant, it might tighten the GOP’s already razor-thin margin within the Home till it is full of a particular election. Below Georgia state regulation, the governor should subject a writ of particular election inside 10 days of a Home emptiness, and the election is required to be held 30 days after that, based on the Nationwide Convention of State Legislatures.
Greene’s political standing has been upended over the past month-and-a-half. She has damaged with a president she defended for years and clashed together with her social gathering’s prime congressional leaders, drawing plaudits from Democratic lawmakers who as soon as voted to take away her committee assignments attributable to conspiratorial feedback.
It started throughout the federal government shutdown, which was pushed partially by Democrats’ push to increase a set of expiring medical insurance tax credit in trade for his or her votes to fund federal businesses. Republican management had argued the federal government ought to reopen earlier than negotiating on well being care.
Greene publicly lashed out at her social gathering, accusing management of failing to provide you with a plan to stop the large medical insurance premium will increase that many households might face subsequent yr if the tax credit aren’t prolonged. She additionally criticized Speaker Mike Johnson for preserving the Home out of session at some point of the shutdown.
Requested by CBS Information if he discovered any shock GOP allies in the course of the shutdown combat, the highest Home Democrat, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, answered: “Three phrases — Marjorie Taylor Greene.”
Greene has additionally criticized the Trump administration for specializing in international coverage fairly than affordability points at dwelling.
And her stance on the Epstein information had conflicted with Mr. Trump’s. Greene and three different Home Republicans joined with Democrats to power a vote on a invoice ordering the discharge of presidency paperwork on Epstein, elevating a difficulty that animates many Trump allies, however one the president has lengthy forged as a distraction by Democrats and “silly” Republicans.
Greene known as Mr. Trump’s place on the problem “an enormous miscalculation” in an interview final week with “CBS Mornings,” arguing that the president has nothing to cover. Mr. Trump finally got here out in favor of the invoice, which handed the Home and Senate practically unanimously this week and was signed into regulation on Wednesday.
In a Reality Social publish final week, the president mentioned Greene “has gone Far Left,” and wrote that “all I see ‘Wacky’ Marjorie do is COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN!” He argued that she was upset as a result of he discouraged her from operating in subsequent yr’s carefully contested Georgia Senate race.
Greene, in the meantime, has forged her break with the GOP and the president as a product of her dedication to the “America First” agenda extensively related to Mr. Trump.
“If I’m forged apart by MAGA Inc and changed by Neocons, Large Pharma, Large Tech, Army Industrial Warfare Advanced, international leaders, and the elite donor class that may’t even relate to actual People, then many widespread People have been forged apart and changed as effectively,” she wrote in Friday’s assertion.
— Ryan Sprouse and Jared Eggleston contributed to this report.
