Marjorie Taylor Greene says Republicans “terrified to step out of line” when it comes to Trump
It was completely unforeseen, a shocker: Marjorie Taylor Greene resigning. The warrior congresswoman, so dogged and fierce, leaving the field of battle, her alliance with President Trump shattered.
Her video resignation statement last month — that she’ll be leaving Congress a year before her term expires — came after President Trump said he would throw his support to someone else for her seat.
She became famous, some would say infamous, with her incendiary insults and belief in conspiracy theories, such as 9/11 was an inside job and that the shooting at the Parkland School in Florida was staged.
At one time, the president had no more ardent defender. But things soured over Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender accused of trafficking girls as young as 14.
Does Greene’s defection signal a split in MAGA? Is she leaving politics for good? And exactly why is she leaving?
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: It wasn’t a decision that I came to lightly. But it was a very important decision for myself and also for my family.
Lesley Stahl: It was sudden.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: It was sudden. But a lot, a lotta things changed. I stood for women who were raped when they were 14 years old. And the president that I fought for for five years called me a traitor for that. And so that changed the landscape of things.
Lesley Stahl: So I’m gonna ask you straight out. Did you surrender? Did Donald Trump run you out of town?
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: No. Not at all. Actually, Lesley, it’s more like this, is I said in my statement I will be no one’s battered wife. And I meant it. And I won’t allow the system to abuse me anymore.
60 Minutes
Lesley Stahl: You really feel abused? You know, he did come after you pretty hard. He called you a “lunatic.” I’m quoting. He said, all she does is “COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN” in caps, and then he called you a “traitor.” So he hit you, whacked you.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: Yes. He did this in the same time span where President Trump brought in the al Qaeda leader that was wanted by the U.S. government, who is now the president of Syria. Then within a week, he brought in the Crown Prince, MBS, who murdered an American journalist. And then he brought in the newly elected Democrat Socialist mayor of New York. That was the time span that he called me a traitor.
Lesley Stahl: You decided not to stay and fight. You decided to give in.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: After President Trump called me a traitor, I got a pipe bomb threat on my house. And then I got several direct death threats on my son.
Lesley Stahl: On your son?
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: On my son.
Lesley Stahl: You say the president put your life in danger. You blame him. You say he “fueled a hot bed of threats against me” and that you blame him for the threats against your son.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: The subject line for the direct death threats on my son was his words. “Marjorie Traitor Greene.” Those were death threats –-
Lesley Stahl: So you do, you blame –
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: – directly fueled by President Trump. And I told him. I told JD Vance. I told them all. Sent those directly to them.
Lesley Stahl: And? Response?
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: JD Vance replied back to me, “We’ll look into it.” I got [a] response from President Trump that I will keep private, but it wasn’t very nice.
Lesley Stahl: Give us a hint of what the president said.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: It was extremely unkind.
President Trump on 11/16/2025: Her life is in danger? Who is that?
Reporter on 11/16/2025: Marjorie Taylor Greene. She says…
President Trump on 11/16/2025: Marjorie “Traitor” Greene. I don’t think her life is in danger. I don’t think—Frankly, I don’t think anybody cares about her.
This new intense vitriol between them is jarring considering she’s been one of the president’s most passionate and loyal footsoldiers, often in a red MAGA hat. She voted with him 98% of the time.
One of the president’s biggest beefs with Greene was about her harping on Jeffrey Epstein.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: 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. I fully believe that those women deserve everything they’re asking. They’re asking for all of it to come out. They deserve it. And he was furious with me.
Lesley Stahl: What did he say?
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: He said that it was going to hurt people. I had asked him, “These women are the ones that were hurt. They, they were raped at 14. They were raped at 16. I watched them stand in front of the press trembling, their bodies shaking as they were telling their stories, many of them for the first time. And I had told him, I said, “You know, you have all kinds of people come in the White House. Have these women come in the White House. These, these women deserve to be heard.”
Lesley Stahl: He said to you, “People will get hurt.”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: “People will get hurt.” I don’t know what that means. I don’t know who they are.
60 Minutes
There were other clashes with the president. She started publicly criticizing him in May on one issue after the next, accusing him of betraying his MAGA, America first, promises.
Lesley Stahl: You went after his, I think you said, trying to entangle us in foreign wars. You said, Air Force One should be parked. No more foreign trips.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: For an America First president the number one focus should have been domestic policy and it wasn’t. And so, of course I was critical because those were my campaign promises. Once we fix everything here, then, fine, we’ll talk to the rest of the world.
She said in her resignation video, that the president has gone establishment, forsaking the base, and her.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene resignation video: “If I’m cast aside by the president and the MAGA political machine and replaced by NeoCons, big pharma, big tech, military industrial war complex, foreign leaders and the elite donor class…”
Lesley Stahl: Are you saying that the president now is siding with those establishment, powerful people and against MAGA?
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: He passed a crypto bill that helped out all the crypto donors. He has served Israel’s interest, even attacking Iran. He has served Big Pharma he didn’t take away the COVID vaccines that we want to see taken away. So those are the areas that are still getting everything they want, while the people, we’re still out here saying, “We wanna see action on areas for the American people, not for the major industries and the big donors.”
Greene has built her reputation on feisty combat and inflammatory insults, like calling President Joe Biden a “liar” during the 2023 State of the Union.
It’s been five years of almost constant drama, with her adding fuel to the nation’s loss of civility. Then, three weeks ago, she went on CNN with a surprise: a mea culpa.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on CNN on 11/16/2025: “I would like to say humbly I’m sorry for taking part in the toxic politics.”
But it became clear to us that she hasn’t entirely lost her appetite for combat.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: It’s the most toxic political culture. And, it’s not helping the American people.
Lesley Stahl: But you contributed to that. You. You, you were out there pounding, insulting people.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: Lesley, you’ve contributed to it as well with your own–
Lesley Stahl: Me?
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: -progr- yes. You’re accusatory, just like you did just then.
Lesley Stahl: I know you’re accusing me, but I’m smiling…
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: You’re accusing me.
Lesley Stahl: I am accusing you.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: But we don’t have to accuse one another.
Lesley Stahl: I want you to respond to what you have done in terms of insulting people, yelling at people, and then saying.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: I’d like for you to respond for that.
Lesley Stahl: I don’t.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: No, you can respond to that…
Lesley Stahl: I don’t insult people.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: You just, you do in the way you question. And you are, you’re accusing me right now.
60 Minutes
One thing she did want to talk about: Congress’ failure to pass spending bills, meaning that she has found it hard to get funds for projects in her district.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: It’s an utter failure not just to the people in my district, but every district across the country.
We met Greene, 51, in her district in Georgia. Before Congress, she ran her family’s construction company, then opened up her own CrossFit gym.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: Affordability is a real issue.
Lesley Stahl: President says it’s not. Says it’s a hoax, affordability.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: It’s one of the top issues. Not only in my district, it’s across the country.
The affordability of health insurance caused Greene to side with the Democrats during the government shutdown to support extending health care subsidies.
Lesley Stahl: Did you ever imagine that you would be standing with the Democrats on the Epstein files and on health care subsidies?
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: No, I never imagined that.
She’s not afraid to be an outlier. She’s the only Republican member of congress to call the war in Gaza a genocide. And–
Lesley Stahl: Why did you vote against the Antisemitism Awareness Act?
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: Since I’ve been a member of Congress, we’ve had several resolutions that constantly denounce antisemitism. I’ve already voted denouncing antisemitism many times before. It becomes an exercise that they force on Congress, and I simply got tired of it.
Lesley Stahl: Is there no value in having the United States Congress reaffirm the fact that they denounce antisemitism in the face of a growing issue, a growing problem?
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: We don’t have to get on our knees and say it over and over again when we already–
Lesley Stahl: Get on our knees?
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: Yes. We do not have to get on our knees.
Lesley Stahl: Well, most members of Congress disagree with you.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: Well, most members of Congress take donations from AIPAC and I don’t.
AIPAC is an American pro-Israel lobbying group. Greene’s perspective indicates a growing rift within MAGA over support for Israel.
Lesley Stahl: Are you MAGA?
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: I’m America first.
Lesley Stahl: And that’s not the same as MAGA?
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: MAGA is President Trump’s phrase. That’s his, his political policies. I call myself America First.
Lesley Stahl: But you’re, you’re not saying you’re MAGA. That’s over.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: I’m America first. Yep
Almost overnight, she’s gone from a close Trump friend, to foe. One of the few Republicans willing to take him on.
Lesley Stahl: I’m gonna ask you about the almost solid support he has among Republicans in Congress. Is there, in that support, fear? Does the support come about because they’re afraid that they’ll get death threats?
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: I think they’re terrified to step outta line and get a nasty Truth Social post on them. Yes.
Lesley Stahl: And they’re watching what happened to you?
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: Yes.
Lesley Stahl: Behind the scenes, do they talk differently?
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: Yes.
Lesley Stahl: How?
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: Oh it’s, it would shock people.
Lesley Stahl: Well, let’s shock people.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: Okay. I watched many of my colleagues go from making fun of him, making fun of how he talks, making fun of me constantly for supporting him, to when he won the primary in 2024 they all started, excuse my language, Lesley, kissing his ass and decided to put on a MAGA hat for the first time.
60 Minutes
This past week when we saw Greene at a public hearing in her district — without a MAGA hat — it didn’t appear that her break from President Trump and MAGA has cost her popularity.
Lesley Stahl: People wanna know, is this a true conversion, a true change of heart, or is it kind of a shrewd political calculation? A lotta people think you’re doing it and that you in a year or so are gonna run for some other office.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: I have zero plans, zero desire to run for president. I would hate the Senate. I’m not running for governor. But it, Lesley, it doesn’t matter how many times I say it. I’ll have face-to-face conversations with people and I’ll flat out tell ’em to their face, and they won’t believe me. And they’re like, “Oh yeah, sure.” They’ll wink at me and I’m like, “Okay.” It’s like I don’t know how to make it more clear.
Lesley Stahl: You mean you’ve just jumped off the cliff and you don’t know where you’re gonna swim to?
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: Surprise, surprise. I’m not your politician with a whole itinerary of plans or political ambitions.
Produced by Denise Schrier Cetta. Associate producers, Elizabeth Germino, Jinsol Jung and Collette Richards. Broadcast associate, Aria Een. Edited by Sean Kelly and Thomas Xenakis.
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