MTG lays into ‘weak Republican men’ in Congress as scorched-earth approach to her own party turns nuclear

If Republican leaders and President Donald Trump were hoping Marjorie Taylor Greene would calm down after weeks of attacks on party policy — the MAGA firebrand just showed them she has no intention of doing any such thing.

The Georgia congresswoman said in a new interview this week that her clashes with fellow Republicans aren’t over, even as House Speaker Mike Johnson has spoken publicly about his efforts to stop the barrage of attacks launched by the firebrand Georgia congresswoman.

Speaking with The Washington Post in an interview that was published on Tuesday, Greene blamed “weak Republican men” in Congress for supposedly trying to marginalize her and other women in the GOP conference who, she said, were interested in making real progress on issues.

“Whereas President Trump has a very strong, dominant style — he’s not weak at all — a lot of the men here in the House are weak,” Greene told the Post.

“There’s a lot of weak Republican men and they’re more afraid of strong Republican women. So they always try to marginalize the strong Republican women that actually want to do something and actually want to achieve.”

It was a scathing remark that seemed to be directed at Johnson, if not other members of GOP leadership as well. Like the Democrats, Republicans have just one woman serving as a member of House leadership: Rep. Lisa McClain; the other three positions are held by men.

Greene is fiercely loyal to Trump but has publicly broken with leadership on matters of policy and strategy many times — even leading an unsuccessful bid to unseat Johnson as speaker. She’s one of a number of members of the Republican conference whom Trump has lobbied personally to secure votes for the passage of key pieces of legislation and to maintain the House GOP’s fragile unity.

In recent days, Greene has defected from Republican ranks again to give Democrats political cover on the issue of rising health care costs. Though she has attacked liberals for failing to address the issue sufficiently under Democratic administrations, in interviews and public statements the congresswoman has reinforced calls for Congress to address staggeringly-high health care premium cost increases set to go into effect within weeks and months if federal subsidies under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, are not extended.

Greene has hammered a message of dissatisfaction with the efforts of either party to address rising costs for consumers and families at a time when Americans are feeling those costs rise significantly — but while Donald Trump and the White House continue to tout inflation-fighting measures and the president himself insists that inflation is barely, if at all, an issue.

“The toothpaste (Obamacare - ACA) is out of the tube. Trying to make it clear that I think the entire system is messed up. Health insurance is vastly unaffordable for all Americans especially since the cost of living has sky rocketed in the past 4 1/2 years,” Greene wrote in an Oct 7 post to X that received nearly 2,000 responses and more than 10,000 likes. She’s since engaged with Mark Cuban and other political figures on the platform regarding the issue.

On a podcast interview with comedian Tim Dillon, she also criticized the administration’s mass deportation effort.

“It needs to be a smarter plan than just rounding up every single person and deporting them just like that,” she told Dillon. “I’m going to get pushback for that, but I’m just living in reality from here on out. If anyone’s mad at me for saying the truth, then I’m sorry.”

Greene went on in the Post interview to issue a challenge to any Republican who thought her public split with congressional leadership could be a hindrance to her re-election bid next year, explaining: “My district knows I ran for Congress trashing Republicans. They voted for me because they agreed with that. My district’s not surprised.”

Adding of Republican men in leadership, apparently including Johnson, she added, “they’re always intimidated by stronger Republican women because we mean it and we will do it and we will make them look bad.”

McClain responded in Johnson’s defense with a statement to the Post which called Greene’s criticism “ridiculous”.

“Speaker Johnson has empowered women by treating them — and all members — with the respect they have earned,” said the Michigan Republican congresswoman. “He believes in merit, not identity politics, which has allowed countless women to serve alongside him and advise him.”

Greene outlined other areas where she thought women in the Republican conference were treated like distractions by leadership in her interview with the Post, which included the political humiliation of Rep. Elise Stefanik. Stefanik ascended to become leader of the House GOP conference and remains a rising star within the party as she challenges New York’s governor, Kathy Hochul, for Hochul’s seat in 2026.

But Stefanik’s selection to be Donald Trump’s U.N. ambassador saw her plucked from the leadership fast track, only for the nomination to be pulled after the president realized that it endangered the Republican House majority. She returned to the chamber without a leadership position. The role for which Stefanik was considered, meanwhile, was filled by Michael Waltz after his unceremonious exit from the national security council.

“It was unbelievably insulting,” Greene said. “I thought it was horrible.”

Johnson, Greene said, gave Stefanik “some honorary bulls*** role” after her nomination was pulled.

“She gets shafted, he gets rewarded,” the congresswoman said. “She’s a woman so it was OK to do that to her somehow.”

While Greene remains publicly loyal to Trump, the congresswoman’s criticism could equally be applied to the president given his role in rescinding Stefanik’s nomination. Greene, who declined to run for Senate in Georgia next year after being pressured to step aside by fellow Republicans, seems to be more isolated than ever from leadership and even the White House, despite her efforts to maintain that relationship.

Johnson, in an interview on Fox News Sunday, indicated that he’d offered an olive branch to Greene and suggested that she work with Republicans he said were working “around the clock” to address healthcare costs.

“I had a thoughtful conversation with my friend Marjorie Taylor Greene on the phone the other night … to inform her that there are many Republicans in Congress that have been working around the clock on this,” said Johnson.

“They’re on the committees of jurisdiction that deal with this. Marjorie doesn’t serve on those committees, so I offered to have her come into the room and be a part of that discussion, if indeed she wants to.”

But Johnson’s statement was clearly viewed as another slight by Greene. And Republican leadership remains opposed to negotiating with Democrats on the issue of Obamacare subsidies or Medicaid cuts while a government shutdown continues.

Democrats say they will not give Republicans the votes necessary to break a filibuster in the Senate on legislation to fund the government until Republicans relent.