Marjorie Taylor Greene Calls Trump a 'Trojan Horse' and 'Traitor' as MAGA Feud Explodes

Marjorie Taylor Greene spent years as one of Donald Trump's most loyal defenders in Congress. This week she called him a traitor to his face, on national television, and a "Trojan horse" on Truth Social.

The fight became public Friday night. At 10:30 p.m., Trump posted on Truth Social attacking Greene, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) as "LOSERS." He called Carlson "totally irrelevant" and a "very Low I.Q. individual," labeled Greene a "highly neurotic young woman," and said Massie is "a real JERK," according to Forbes.

Greene responded Saturday morning with a lengthy statement that went well beyond returning insults. "In the past, I supported him because of the policies he professed to support and passionately campaigned on, but now as president he's been revealed to be the Trojan horse who enforces many of the policies he claimed to be against," she wrote, according to Forbes and corroborated by Salon. "I'm sorry I didn't see it earlier and wish I had never supported him."

She went further, calling Trump a "neocon puppet for Israel... and his dear friends in the Epstein class," and comparing his rhetoric to "an internet troll or one of the many millions of bots that say awful horrible things," per Forbes.

On Salon's account, Greene also floated a theory for the timing of Trump's outburst: "I wonder if it was being called a traitor at his own rally yesterday that caused him to dictate his lies and insult laden attack on Tucker, Thomas, and I, while he flew back on the plane. It's also the bad polling that I'm sure he's seen by now."

That "traitor" reference points to an earlier flashpoint. Greene told CNN's Kaitlan Collins on "The Source" this week that Trump himself deserves the label, not her. She said Trump once told her by phone and text that she "deserved" threats against her son after she was called a traitor for pushing to release the Jeffrey Epstein files, according to Breitbart's transcript of the interview. "He told me on the phone that his friends would get hurt, and thats why hes against releasing the Epstein files," Greene told Collins. When Collins asked directly whether she considers Trump a traitor, Greene said: "Im saying exactly that."

Trump's team has not issued a point-by-point rebuttal of Greene's specific claims about that phone call, and no independent verification of the call's contents has been published in these sources. That leaves a direct factual dispute between Trump and Greene over what was actually said, unresolved.

What's driving the split

This isn't just a personality clash. Three issues sit at the center: the handling of the Epstein files, the war with Iran, and rising cost of living, according to Forbes and Salon. Carlson broke publicly with the Republican Party in June over the Iran war, declaring "I'm out" and adding "if I'm out, then I think a lot of other people are out," per Salon.

Earlier this month Carlson hosted a small gathering that included Greene, Massie, and Joe Kent, a former Trump counterterrorism official who resigned over the Iran war. Kent later said the group is trying to build a new anti-war political movement and has encouraged Carlson to consider a 2028 presidential run, according to Salon. Carlson has also released a 10-point "America First" manifesto centered on ending foreign wars and reducing foreign influence over U.S. policy.

Trump dismissed Carlson's political relevance but also hedged. He wrote that Carlson's "views have fallen through the floor" while separately predicting that if Carlson ran for president, he "could probably take a couple of points away from whatever the Republican ticket happens to be," Salon reported.

Greene, Massie, and Carlson all insist they haven't left MAGA. Their argument, as Salon lays out, is the reverse: Trump left them. "We never changed, Trump did," Greene wrote.

Where the coverage diverges

The New Republic's Greg Sargent framed this primarily through a Democratic strategic lens, treating Greene's midterm warning as evidence the "GOP is toast" and folding it into commentary on what he called Trump's "crazed, rambling tirade" on Iran. That framing treats an intra-Republican rebellion as validation of a partisan Democratic talking point rather than reporting the substance of what Greene, Massie, and Carlson are actually arguing. Their critique is anti-interventionist and transparency-focused, positions that don't map onto standard left-right lines.

Breitbart's coverage of the CNN interview is straightforward and unembellished, running Greene's quotes without commentary, which lets the exchange with Collins speak for itself.

None of the sources here include a direct, substantive Trump response to Greene's specific Epstein-related allegation about the threatening phone call. That's the open question hanging over this fight: did Trump actually tell Greene her son "deserved" threats, and if the White House disputes her account, why hasn't it said so on the record?