Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has made one explosive remark after another since her fallout with President Donald Trump and his administration.
Trump withdrew his endorsement of Greene earlier this year after she supported the Democrats in their push for the release of the investigative files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Highlights
- Rep. Greene's support for releasing Epstein files led to Trump withdrawing his endorsement and calling her a 'traitor' and 'ranting lunatic.'
- Trump warned Greene, 'My friends will get hurt,' during a hostile call, after she pushed for the Epstein files' transparency.
- The released Epstein files connect powerful figures including Trump, Clinton, and Prince Andrew to Epstein, sparking controversy.
- Greene criticized GOP leadership's focus and called out Trump for prioritizing elites over victims of abuse in the Epstein scandal.
In an interview with The New York Times, she revealed the final straw that pushed her to demand more transparency from the government surrounding the Epstein files.
MTG revealed the final straw that pushed her to demand transparency on the Epstein files
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Greene told journalist Robert Draper that her small disagreements with Trump possibly got on his nerves, “but it was Epstein” that led to the split between them. “Epstein was everything,” she said.
Trump has called Greene a “traitor” and a “ranting lunatic” as she announced her resignation from Congress, effective January 2026.
“The Epstein files represent everything wrong with Washington,” Greene began telling NYT. “Rich, powerful elites doing horrible things and getting away with it. And the women are the victims.”
Greene spoke with Epstein survivors during a closed-door House Oversight hearing back in September, after which she rallied reporters and said she would work with victims to reveal the names of Epstein’s associates if the files were not released.
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She said this threat resulted in her last proper conversation with Trump—and it was a hostile phone call. On the call, which Greene answered on speaker, Trump could be heard screaming at everyone in the suite of rooms in Greene’s Capitol Hill office.
Greene told Draper that she expressed her confusion to Trump over the phone, when the president replied, “My friends will get hurt.”
Later, when Greene suggested that Trump could invite Epstein survivors to the Oval Office to show the people that their stories were being heard, the president allegedly said that they had not done anything to earn such an honor.
She later joined representatives Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie to force the release of the Epstein files through the Epstein Files Transparency Act. She said that she refused to be a “battered wife” to Trump during a recent 60 Minutes interview.
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Greene recalled her conversation with Trump when talking to CBS News’ Lesley Stahl. “We did talk about the Epstein files, and he was extremely angry at me that I had signed the discharge petition to release the files,” Greene said.
“He [Trump] said that it was going to hurt people,” she added.
Trump signed the Epstein Files Transparency Act into law, and since then, the DOJ has released 30,000 pages of investigative material, with redactions on classified information or anything that could identify victims. However, the administration has been criticized for over-redaction.
The documents revealed that powerful figures, from Bill Clinton to Trump himself, along with former Prince Andrew, Michael Jackson, Noam Chomsky, Bill Gates, Steve Bannon, and many more, were associated with Epstein.
It also includes an uncorroborated rape claim made against Trump shortly before the 2020 election, which the DOJ defended as “untrue and sensationalist.”
Trump apparently told Greene that the release of the files would hurt his friends
“How did all of this end up to a point,” Greene told NYT, questioning the Trump administration and the future of Republicans, “where it was about releasing files about women who were raped, and not the serious things that I think truly matter about helping to get our economy stabilized again? Help reduce the cost of living, fix the housing market, fix health insurance—for the love of God, what the [expletive] is the matter with these people?”
Since her change of heart, Greene has publicly criticized her party’s congressional leadership for failing to fulfill promises, contributing to Republican losses in state elections.
She publicly confronted House Speaker Mike Johnson over the absence of a unified GOP health-care plan while the government was in shutdown.
On foreign policy, Greene was the first Republican to describe Israel’s actions in Gaza as “genocide” and called on the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) to register as a foreign lobbyist.
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Greene said Trump would stop at nothing to remain in office even after his second term expires.
“In my opinion, we’re going to see more war. Because what do you do when you really lose power, when you become a lame duck? How do you cling to power? You go to war,” she told NYT.
She added that she “was just so naive” for believing that Trump was a man of the people. She said of Trump’s speech at Charlie Kirk’s memorial service, “That was absolutely the worst statement. It just shows where his heart is. And that’s the difference, with her having a sincere Christian faith, and proves that he does not have any faith.”
After the NYT interview was published, Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego wrote on X, “‘My friends will get hurt,’ he [Trump] said. That’s the Trump presidency in a sentence: Elite protecting elite. Even if they abused young girls.”
Rep. Sarah McBride also weighed in, writing on X, “Is this the Epstein cover-up version of ‘asking for a friend?’”