AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene became a household name as one of President Trump's most outspoken allies. But now the Georgia Republican is making headlines for a very different reason - her criticisms of the president. And that has led to a very public break between the two of them, including a new nickname from Trump just this week.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Marjorie traitor Greene.
CHANG: NPR congressional reporter Sam Gringlas explains what's behind Greene's shift.
SAM GRINGLAS, BYLINE: On a brisk morning this week, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene stood outside the Capitol with some of the women abused by convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. For months, Greene had been publicly pressing President Trump and top Republicans in Congress to release the case files from two federal investigations into Epstein. Trump called Greene a traitor.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE: I've never owed him anything, but I fought for him and for America First. And he called me a traitor for standing with these women.
GRINGLAS: The cracks had been growing over the last year, as Greene increasingly pointed out where she saw the president falling short on the war in Gaza, on expiring health subsidies. And she was doing it not just on social media or in right-wing outlets, but on programs like ABC's "The View."
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE VIEW")
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: Someone you might be surprised to see here.
JOY BEHAR: (Laughter).
GOLDBERG: Please welcome Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene.
(APPLAUSE)
NATHAN PRICE: I was thinking if this was the first time I've ever seen this person, it sounds like a normal congressperson from "Schoolhouse Rock!"
GRINGLAS: That's University of North Georgia Professor Nathan Price, who says this new persona may be hard to square with the Greene many Americans first got to know, the congresswoman who had embraced QAnon conspiracy theories, liked a post that called for violence against former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and heckled a school shooting survivor in 2020.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
GREENE: ...Using your lobby and the money behind it and try to take away my Second Amendment rights. You don't have anything to say for yourself?
GRINGLAS: Even Trump has been publicly musing, what happened to Marjorie? Georgia Republican strategist Brian Robinson says it's a fair question.
BRIAN ROBINSON: I am open to the idea that she's had a road to Damascus moment, a conversion, that she sees the errors of the toxicity and wants something that's better.
GRINGLAS: Robinson says this could be a natural evolution for the former suburban CrossFit gym owner.
ROBINSON: You know, we love to elect outsiders to Congress. They go to Congress with very little idea of how it works. And if at some point, you're like, I want to do substantive things that make America better, then I got to do this a little bit different.
GRINGLAS: Or she may be trying to broaden her appeal for higher office. Trump said last week he showed Greene polling earlier this year suggesting she would flounder in a race for governor or Senate.
ROBINSON: Is she intentionally signaling to women the good old boys club ignores us? I understand your struggles?
GRINGLAS: Both Robinson and Price say Greene's evolution is more about style than substance. She's disavowed some of her more controversial views, but the anti-interventionist, anti-elite principles that propelled her to Congress are still core to her identity.
RICKY HESS: What she's responding to is believing that the president has shifted on these issues.
GRINGLAS: Ricky Hess, who chairs the Paulding County Republican Party, spends a lot of time talking with voters in the 14th Congressional District.
HESS: The issues that they want to talk about involve high property taxes, high health care costs, whether or not their kids will be able to buy a house when they graduate.
GRINGLAS: Hess says Greene's America First world view resonates in this heavily working-class and rural district.
HESS: I believe that she's pretty tapped into what her constituents are wanting, and I have to believe that most of her actions are in service to that.
GRINGLAS: Hess says voters see Trump and Greene as fighters on the same team. But Martha Zoller, who hosts a political talk radio show that airs across North Georgia, says not everyone's mind is made up.
MARTHA ZOLLER: People are kind of reeling, if you want to know the truth. We haven't had a lot of listeners discussing it because I think they're waiting to see what happens.
GRINGLAS: Zoller says the conflict is about more than just two big personalities falling out on the national stage.
ZOLLER: I think that the big discussion we're going to be having as Republicans over the next three years is, what is the Republican movement once it's not Trump?
GRINGLAS: Zoller says it looks like Greene wants to be a part of that discussion.
Sam Gringlas, NPR News, Washington. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
