Feud in the family: Trump break with Marjorie Taylor Greene jolts MAGA heartland

LAFAYETTE, Georgia - In a brightly lit, mostly packed meeting hall in LaFayette, Georgia, Ms Jackie Harling leaned into the microphone, her voice calm and firm, “So the elephant in the room: We love President Trump and we love our congresswoman,” she told the Walker County Republicans on Nov 18, “and there seems to be a little bit of trouble brewing”.

Attendees, sitting at round tables evenly spaced about the room, listened attentively as Ms Harling, the local party chair, addressed what everyone was thinking: the widening rift between Donald Trump and US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene. “We don’t have to take a side,” she said, urging unity.

That Ms Harling felt the need to put the feud between Mr Trump and Ms Greene, until recently one of his most fervent supporters, on the agenda underscores how disruptive it has become for Republicans. The dispute has fuelled concerns that Mr Trump's Make America Great Again base could fracture a year before Americans go to the polls for midterm elections, when Democrats hope to regain control of Congress.

While picking at the coffee-and-cookie spread, attendees took turns airing their worries about the rift, which deepened over the weekend over Ms Greene's continued criticism of Mr Trump's handling of investigative records related to his onetime friend and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. 

Ms Greene, who has been one of the most prominent voices in the MAGA movement, has not shirked from criticising her own party or taking on Mr Trump directly over the Epstein scandal, foreign policy, healthcare costs or the government shutdown, which saw food aid benefits for the poor cut or reduced and thousands of government workers furloughed without pay. Mr Trump has called her a "traitor" and withdrawn his endorsement of her.

While most MAGA figures remain firmly aligned with Mr Trump, the clash between the president and Greene highlights emerging tensions within the movement. A vocal faction has soured on Mr Trump over his initial reluctance to release more Epstein records and his administration's unyielding support for Israel. 

Reuters this week interviewed 21 Republican-leaning voters in the cities of Rome, Cave Spring and LaFayette in Greene's district. All said they wanted a full release of Epstein materials. Most were both Trump and Greene supporters who said they would continue to support both, dismissing Mr Trump's broadsides as irrelevant to how they would vote.

Neither the White House nor Greene's office responded to requests for comment.

Distraction from affordability concerns

A middle-aged woman who identified herself only as Felicia at the Nov 18 meeting raised her hand to say she was concerned that the feud could become a costly distraction for the party at a time when it should be focused on Americans' growing concerns about affordability.

A lack of focus on the issue "was going to be a problem for Republicans", she warned, two weeks after Democrats scored a series of victories in state and local elections that were driven in part by voters' worries about rising prices.

Mr Jim Tully, party chairman for Ms Greene's district, paced the room and spoke passionately for nearly 20 minutes, stressing the need to stand behind her. 

"Two powerful people with powerful desire and powerful voices have found a place to clash," said Mr Tully. "It hurts my heart to watch our congresswoman knowing firsthand how hard she works for us all the time."

Ms Greene was sent to Washington by her primarily blue-collar region of Georgia in 2021 and quickly made a name for herself for her outspokenness. Surrounded by several of Epstein's victims outside the Capitol on Nov 18, Ms Greene said the president's handling of the Epstein issue "has been one of the most destructive things to MAGA," adding that the saga had "ripped MAGA apart".

While the rift marks a rare break between a MAGA loyalist and Mr Trump, it should not be seen as a sign that Trump is losing his grip on the party, said Mr Kerwin Swint, a political science professor at Kennesaw State University in Georgia.

"Even in 2026 and 2028 I think they're still going to want to be aligned with the Donald Trump wing of the party," he told Reuters, referring to next November's congressional elections and the presidential election.

Mr Kasey Carpenter, a state lawmaker in Ms Greene's district, said Ms Greene's break with Mr Trump in part reflects her constituents' dissatisfaction with some of the president's policies.

"I think that people are realising it's okay to decouple from the president on issues," said Mr Carpenter, a Republican.

Greene facing primary challengers

Mr Dennis Shoaf, a Republican ally of Greene in Cave Spring, said a contingent of Christian conservative Republicans may not vote for her in 2026 because of her criticism of Israel's war in Gaza and US aid to the country, a stance that has put her at odds with Mr Trump and much of the Republican Party.

But even if Mr Trump follows through on his threat to back a primary challenger, Shoaf still thinks that Ms Greene, who won re-election in 2024 with just over 64 per cent of the vote, would prevail, noting that Georgia's Republican Governor Brian Kemp fended off a Trump-backed primary opponent in 2022.

So far, four Republicans have filed to run against Ms Greene in the Republican primary. One is Mr Jeff Criswell, a retired business owner who believes Ms Greene is vulnerable, due to her stance on Israel and Trump's withdrawal of support.

"If she thinks her brand is bigger than Trump in this district, she's nuts," Mr Criswell told Reuters in an interview.

Yet many Republicans and even some Democrats interviewed by Reuters said they were happy to see Ms Greene stake out her own stances on issues. They applauded her apology on Nov 16 in a CNN interview for her role in what she described as "toxic politics". 

Mr Cooper Jacks, a 19-year-old member of the Walker County Republican leadership team, described himself as a strong Trump supporter but said Greene's push to disclose all the Epstein-related records had sealed his support for her. 

The Epstein saga has taken a toll on Mr Trump's public approval, which fell to its lowest point this year in a Reuters/Ipsos poll that concluded on Nov 17. The poll found that just 44 per cent of Republicans thought Mr Trump was handling the situation well, while 70 per cent of Americans overall believed the government was hiding information about people involved in his sex crimes.

On Nov 19, the Justice Department said it would release the Epstein files within 30 days, but how complete the disclosure will be remains uncertain given that the agency may have to hold back material relevant to politically sensitive investigations.

However the disclosure unfolds, the issue and the internecine clash over it threaten to dog the party into next year.

MS Harling ended her remarks on Nov 18 urging everyone to keep both Mr Trump and Ms Greene in their prayers.

"The world can be a really hard place, and they have a lot of responsibilities," she said. "But they definitely don't need us to stop praying for them, because I think it's all gonna be okay." REUTERS