Marjorie Taylor Greene vs Donald Trump: How Gaza, Iran and Epstein contributed to the great MAGA rift

A major rift has broken out between US President Donald Trump and his former supporter, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, signaling a wider division inside the president’s legion of MAGA loyalists.

Greene, who has represented Georgia’s 14th district in the US Congress since 2021, emerged among the new faces of the Trumpist crowd during his first term between 2017 and 2021, fiercely advocating for the controversial Republican and widely promoting his "America First" agenda, as well as QAnon and other conspiracy theories.

Who is Marjorie Taylor Greene?

Before entering politics in 2019, when she kickstarted her electoral campaign in her home state of Georgia, Greene dabbled in writing articles for right-wing websites and was the leader of the Family American Project, a conservative group that platformed conspiracy theories and where members targeted the Democratic Party.

Since she became involved in politics, Greene has promoted far-right conspiracy theories such as QAnon and Pizzagate, and has indicated support for calls for the "execution" of Democratic Party members. In 2020, she shared a "meme" of herself online holding a rifle against Muslim Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, as well as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, members of the progressive female collective of left-wing representatives known as 'The Squad'.

She has also endorsed political violence, leading to her removal from all committee roles in the US House of Representatives, before being reappointed to new roles two years later.

Greene has also peddled conspiracy theories about 9/11, former President Barack Obama’s religion, and Covid-19, and has repeated unfounded claims of fraud during the 2020 Presidential election. She has also espoused anti-Muslim and antisemitic rhetoric.

In terms of foreign policy, Greene has been accused of promoting Russian propaganda concerning Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, and praised President Vladimir Putin.

Friends no more - Greene turns against Israel

The allyship between Trump and the Georgia Representative began to break down after she voiced a number of criticisms against the president's policies this summer, accusing him of prioritising foreign interests over domestic issues, such as the cost of living crisis.

The MAGA firebrand took issue with the US’s mammoth military assistance for Israel during the brutal war in Gaza, and also criticised the US’s involvement in the Israel-Iran war last June, saying that such strikes in support of Tel Aviv have cost “trillions and trillions of dollars that never benefited Americans”.

"Americans don’t want to bomb Iran because the secular government of Israel says that Iran is on the verge of developing a nuclear bomb any day now," she previously posted on X.

She added that she doesn’t believe "anyone thinks about Iran" in her district, and stressed that the conflict was not the US’s "fight", but the biggest policy shift came when Greene publicly said in July that a genocide was occurring in the Gaza Strip, where 69,000 Palestinians have been killed in two years of war.

In response to a post on X by Florida Representative Randy Fine encouraging the starvation of Gaza’s Palestinians, Greene wrote: "It’s the most truthful and easiest thing to say that Oct 7th in Israel was horrific and all hostages must be returned, but so is the genocide, humanitarian crisis, and starvation happening in Gaza."

She also criticised Fine for advocating for the starvation of Palestinians in the enclave in the same exchange.

She had also voted to cut funding for Israel’s missile defence systems, and expressed concerns over the assault on Gaza’s small Christian population, dozens of whom were killed and whose churches were targeted in Israeli strikes.

Greene's comments on Israel were harsher than those of most US politicians. There has been increasing condemnation in the US of the deadly onslaught in Gaza, but very few Congress members labelled the atrocities as a genocide.

Greene attacks Trump over Epstein

The rift between Greene and the US president has since deepened significantly over the Epstein files controversy, with Greene suggesting that Israel could be pressuring the president not to release the files.

"It really makes you wonder what is in those files and who and what country is putting so much pressure on him?" she said on X.

In an interview with CNN, she elaborated on the post: "I think it’s the question that many Americans are asking, especially when we saw information recently come out in these e-mails that the Oversight Committee that I serve on has released."

The scandal centres around sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein's list containing the names of high-profile clients to whom the financier allegedly trafficked underage girls to. Trump, a friend and associate of Epstein, has raised questions over a potential involvement in the scandal.

Trump was part of Epstein’s close circle decades ago, but claimed that his friendship ended with the financier after his involvement in sex trafficking became known. Trump also denies any wrongdoing.

Greene is pushing for the files to be released, believing that the US "deserves transparency" over their contents, and that "rich, powerful people shouldn’t be protected if they’ve done anything wrong".

Trump has since angrily hit back at Greene, calling her "wacky," and saying that "all she does is complain," and has withdrawn his endorsement for her. Since then, Greene said that her life is "in danger" after she said Trump’s comments have incited his supporters online.

Amid the accusations surrounding Trump, and people coming to his defence, Greene said:  "I don’t worship or serve Donald Trump. I worship God."

The Epstein files saga continues to see dramatic twists, with Trump now telling his fellow Republicans in Congress to vote for the release of the files, in a notable U-turn.