“I am withdrawing my support from ‘Congresswoman’ Marjorie Taylor Greene,” Trump wrote on his online network Truth Social on Friday (local time). If an internal party competitor challenges the 51-year-old – long one of the best-known faces of Trump’s MAGA movement – in a primary election in the state of Georgia, he would support him.
Trump also called Greene a “ranting lunatic” who has drifted “far to the left” and claimed Georgia voters are “fed up with her and her antics.” On Saturday, the US President followed up and called Greene a “traitor”.
The background to this has been ongoing demands for months, including from parts of Trump’s MAGA movement (Make America Great Again), to publish all files on the Epstein scandal. Trump denies having close ties to the sex offender who died in custody in 2019.
However, recently published emails and documents suggest the opposite. In addition, numerous videos and photos from earlier years show the two millionaires together.
“I do not worship or serve Donald Trump,” Greene responded to the president’s announcement on the online service X. Trump is attacking her as punishment and as a warning to other Republicans because she supports efforts to release the Epstein files.
The MP later explained that she was being massively threatened and that private security companies had contacted her with warnings. The threats against her were fueled by the “most powerful man in the world,” Greene wrote: “The man I supported and helped win the election.” Greene added: “As a woman, I take threats from men seriously.”
Greene has been known as an ardent Trump supporter for years. In the past few months, however, the 51-year-old Republican has deviated from Trump’s line several times.
The MP was particularly vocal as a campaigner for the full release of the Epstein files. Most recently, she supported an initiative by the opposition Democrats to have the House of Representatives vote next week on the demand for the files to be published.
“And of course he’s coming after me now to make an example of him and scare all the other Republicans before the vote next week,” Greene said, commenting on Trump’s actions. “It’s amazing how hard he fights to stop the release of the Epstein files, even going so far.”
Convicted sex offender Epstein was found dead in his New York prison cell in 2019 while awaiting another trial. According to authorities, he committed suicide. According to the investigation, Epstein had abused underage girls and young women for years and passed them on to celebrities. Many US citizens and right-wing influencers suspect that the former financial investor was murdered to prevent him from coming forward against prominent accomplices.
In the past few days, further emails from Epstein have been published. In it, the millionaire wrote, among other things, that Trump was aware of the abuse of minors: “Of course he knew about the girls,” it said in an email from January 2019. In addition, Trump, who was Epstein’s neighbor in Florida for years, spent “hours” with the abuse victim Virginia Giuffre. Giuffre committed suicide in April.
The US House of Representatives plans to pass a bipartisan motion next week to force the government to release all Epstein files.
Trump has so far shown no willingness to release the Epstein files, although he had promised to do so in the past. Instead, he called on the Justice Department and the FBI on Friday to investigate Epstein’s ties to former President Bill Clinton and “many other people and institutions.” Justice Minister Pam Bondi then immediately ordered an investigation.
