• Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia announced that she will resign her seat in the House of Representatives in the middle of her third term with her last day in office being Jan. 5.
• Greene’s announcement, in a video and statement posted on X, came after a dramatic break with President Donald Trump.
• She suggested that Republicans will lose the 2026 midterm elections and that Trump will be impeached when Democrats regain control of the House.
• Green until recently had been a leading supporter of Trump and a prominent figure in his MAGA, movement, while sparking controversy for promoting conspiracy theories.

U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) speaks, at a campaign event for Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump, at the Johnny Mercer Theatre Civic Center in Savannah, Georgia, U.S. September 24, 2024.

Megan Varner | Reuters

Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia announced on Friday night that she will resign her seat in the House of Representatives, with her last day in office being Jan. 5.

Greene’s announcement, in a video and statement posted on X, followed a dramatic break with President Donald Trump, which she cited as playing a role in her decision to leave Congress in the middle of her third term.

Green, 51, had been a leading supporter of Trump and a prominent figure in his Make America Great Again, or MAGA, movement, while sparking controversy for promoting conspiracy theories and using extreme rhetoric.

But she recently faced harsh criticism from Trump for backing a bill to compel the Department of Justice to release investigative files about Jeffrey Epstein, the notorious sex offender.

Greene also has criticized the Republican president for what prioritizing meeting with foreign leaders at the expense of paying attention to the needs of Americans.

“I have too much self respect and dignity, love my family too much, and do not want my sweet district to have to endure a hurtful and hateful primary against me by the President we all fought for, only to fight and win my election while Republicans will likely lose the midterms,” Greene wrote in her statement.

“And in turn, be expected to defend the President against impeachment after he hatefully dumped tens of millions of dollars against me and tried to destroy me,” Greene said.

“It’s all so absurd and completely unserious,” she wrote. “I refuse to be a ‘battered wife’ hoping it all goes away and gets better.”

Greene’s resignation from her seat representing Georgia’s 14th District could set the stage for her to seek to replace Trump in the White House in the 2028 election, and possibly become the next leader of the MAGA movement once he exits political life.

But Greene, in her statement,t conceded that her resignation could end not only her congressional career, but also her role in MAGA.

“If I am cast aside by MAGA Inc and replaced by Neocons, Big Pharma, Big Tech, Military Industrial War Complex, foreign leaders, and the elite donor class that can’t even relate to real Americans, then many common Americans have been cast aside and replaced as well.”

US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R) speaks alongside former US President and 2024 presidential hopeful Donald Trump at a campaign event in Rome, Georgia, on March 9, 2024.

Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said Sunday she will stop using “toxic” rhetoric, marking what would be a dramatic shift in a political brand hallmarked by derogatory comments.

The commitment comes amid a rift with Donald Trump that has spilled into public view, with the president attacking the Georgia Republican personally. Greene, meanwhile, has pivoted away from the Republican Party more broadly recently, criticizing the GOP on a number of fronts, including the party’s handling of the government shutdown.

In an exclusive interview with CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union” on Sunday, Greene said she worried Trump’s rhetoric toward her could lead to violence against her.

“The most hurtful thing (Trump) said, which is absolutely untrue, is he called me a traitor, and that is so extremely wrong,” Greene said, “and those are the types of words used that can radicalize people against me and put my life in danger.”

When pressed by Bash on why she didn’t speak out against Trump using such rhetoric until it was directed at her, Greene conceded that it was “fair criticism.”

“I would like to say, humbly, I’m sorry for taking part in the toxic politics; it’s very bad for our country,” Greene said. “It’s been something I’ve thought about a lot, especially since Charlie Kirk was assassinated.”

Greene said she realized that she has participated in or supported heated rhetoric that has resulted in threats toward others, a point of reflection for her.

“I’m only responsible for myself and my own words and actions … and I’ve been working on this a lot lately, to put down the knives in politics,” Greene said. “I really want to just see people be kind to one another.”

A long history of flagrant remarks

Greene’s pivot represents a sharp departure from her typical conservative firebrand persona. She has previously spread offensive rhetoric about the Holocaust, lobbed personal insults during congressional proceedings and fought with fellow Republicans to the point her own caucus has pushed for repercussions for her acting out.

Greene repeatedly indicated support for Facebook posts calling for executing prominent Democratic politicians in 2018 and 2019, before she was elected to Congress, a CNN KFile report revealed in 2021. After CNN reached out to Greene at the time, her personal Twitter account posted a statement that did not deny that she liked posts and replied to comments, but claimed that many people have run her Facebook page. The report resulted in her being removed from House committee assignments until 2023.

Also in 2021, Greene compared then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s decision to continue to require House lawmakers to wear masks on the chamber floor to steps the Nazis took to control the Jewish population during the Holocaust. Greene issued a rare apology after that incident.

She was also ejected from the conservative House Freedom Caucus in 2023 in part because of fights she had with its members. She later brushed off her ouster, saying she didn’t “have time for the drama club.”

In one of her more notorious incidents, Greene got into a fight during a committee markup in 2024, during which she insulted Rep. Jasmine Crockett’s personal appearance and verbally sparred with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Greene refused to apologize when given the opportunity by the committee’s chair. The majority of Republicans on the panel eventually voted to allow Greene to continue speaking during the markup, though Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado joined Democrats in voting to have Greene silenced for the rest of the period.

That was not the only time Boebert and Greene had a public disagreement. During an argument on the House floor in 2023, Greene called Boebert “a little b*tch.”

Beyond her colleagues, Greene also snapped at a British journalist to “go back to your country” after the reporter asked about the Signal chat controversy involving Trump administration officials earlier this year

Greene said Sunday she’s done participating in politics in that way, adding that America needs to find “a new path forward,” and calling on people “to come together and end all the toxic, dangerous rhetoric and divide.”