WASHINGTON — Ten months into Donald Trump's second term, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is positioning herself as a surprising critic of administration policies — and as a champion of the “America First” agenda that she believes the president has moved away from, she told NBC News in recent interviews.
Greene, who has long been one of his most outspoken allies, said Trump personally inspired her to run for Congress in Georgia in 2022 and described her political identity as rooted in his promise to represent what she calls “the forgotten man and woman of America.”
“That was me,” she recently told Tucker Carlson, recalling how she viewed the Trump campaign as “a referendum for the Republican Party on behalf of the American people… who are so tired of Washington, D.C.”
Now Greene finds herself at the center of divisions within the Republican Party over how deeply the US should intervene in foreign politics, as polls show the economy is a top issue for many Americans and after a round of elections that accessibility-oriented.
“Nobody cares about foreign countries. Nobody cares about the endless number of foreign leaders coming to the White House every week,” Greene told NBC News.
The controversy highlights wider schism the question of whether Trump's presidency reflects the populist message that fueled his rise. And it reflects the MAGA movement preparing for a future without Trump at the top of the ticket as the next generation of leaders figures out where to take the base he's built.
Trump has made 14 foreign trips since taking office in January, with stops in Italy, the Middle East, Canada, Asia and the United Kingdom, according to an NBC News analysis. During the same period, he visited 15 US states. This includes a trip to Alaska to meet with Russia's Vladimir Putin and discuss ending the war in Ukraine. By this point in Trump's first term, he had visited 27 states. Trump also said he plans to travel to China early next year to meet with President Xi Jinping. AND Bloomberg reported this. On Thursday he may attend the World Economic Forum, a gathering of political and business elites next year in Davos, Switzerland.
“We didn’t elect a president to go travel the world and end foreign wars,” Greene said. “We elected a president to stop sending tax dollars and weapons to foreign wars – and to stop participating in them entirely. Watching foreign leaders come into the White House through a revolving door does not help Americans.”
“One of the main problems of the election campaign is that Americans are tired of foreign wars,” she added. “This is how to get us out of this.”
Although Trump promised during the election campaign to quickly end the wars in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip, the latest national report NBC News poll shows that a large majority of Republicans believe he has met their expectations on foreign policy (82%), including 66% of Republicans who do not identify with the MAGA movement.
But for Green and others, it's a matter of priorities; they argue that the economy should be the focus.
“It’s not that I want a completely different foreign policy,” said one Trump ally who watches foreign policy and was granted anonymity to speak candidly. “He just needs to be more aggressive in communicating that his focus is on young Americans, the things they still struggle to get and the challenges they face.”
Greene has stepped up her criticism as her foreign visits continue, saying Trump's focus abroad “does nothing to address the issues that really plague vulnerable segments of our population, especially our youth.”
She criticized meetings with leaders such as Argentine Javier Miley, whom she called looking for “salvation” And Vladimir Zelensky, Ukraine.who, she said, arrived “with arms outstretched, asking for more.”
Ryan Girdusky, a Republican consultant who helped lead the super PAC supporting J.D. Vance in the 2022 Ohio Senate race, said it was not surprising that the president has expressed interest in strengthening his global heritage.
“When presidents don't have to run again, they do a lot of foreign policy travel,” Girdusky said. “They're doing a lot of legacy work. And Trump's dealings in the Middle East are probably the most important of any presidential project since Nixon.”
A Trump ally said that while he supports Trump in raising awareness of, say, Christians are persecuted in Nigeria“If we get to the point where we actually start talking about military action there, then I think we'll lose the plot.”
Conservatives also questioned recent US strikes in the Pacific and Caribbean and whether Trump risks sliding into deeper conflict. President in October rejected that he is considering strikes inside Venezuela.
IN article last monthConservative journalist Christopher Caldwell questioned the US military and weapons buildup off the coast of Venezuela, asking: “What does Trump think he's doing?”
Carlson, on a recent show featuring Greene, laid out what he called the five pillars of MAGA, or the founding principles of the Trump administration. The first, he said, puts America first, describing it as the idea “that a country acts on behalf of its owners, the citizens of that country.” Other pillars have a similar focus on the homeland, including a secure border, an end to foreign wars, and a “real” domestic economy independent of globalization. The fifth calls for the protection of freedom of speech.
“You can't have a global country,” Carlson said, arguing that this is “a point Trump has made over and over again.”
Asked about Greene's recent comments after a meeting this morning with Syria's interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, Trump said Monday that he should “look at the presidency as a worldwide situation, not a local one.”
“When you're president, you really have to watch the world because you're going to get dragged into it – otherwise you're going to get dragged into a world war,” Trump said.
“You know, it's easy to say, 'Oh, don't have a worry in the world.' But the world turns out to be our biggest client,” he continued. “The world… the world was on fire, and we could very easily have been on fire if you didn't have a president who knew what he was doing.”
Of Greene, a longtime ally, he said, “I think she's lost her way.”
Responding to Trump's comments, Greene told NBC News this week: “I'm America first, America only. Hardcore.”
Asked if she had spoken to him to discuss everything, she replied: “No, I haven't spoken to him. 100% has not changed.”
The clash comes amid a challenging housing market and rising living costs. Only one in five homes sold in the year ending June were first-time buyers, according to a new report. National Association of Realtors report. Greene pointed to her adult children – ages 22, 26 and 28 – as examples of what she sees as a generation facing diminishing prospects.
“They don’t think they’ll ever be able to buy a house,” she said. “They were promised: You'll go to college and get a great job. That doesn't exist. That's not reality.”
In a recent interview with Fox News, Trump discussed availability but it seems downplay Americans' concerns about economic anxiety, calling the issue a “Democratic scam” and suggesting that survey showing what it was most important for voters was “fake”.
Greene's message resonated with others in the party, especially after a string of disappointing GOP election results this month. And she drew applause in political circles for her willingness to take a direct blow to her own party, including during a recent performance in the program “Vzglyad”.
Greene denied rumors that she is running for president in 2028, saying she is focused on her district.
Analysts say the tensions reflect a broader evolution of the Trump movement.
Justin Logan, a foreign policy analyst at the Cato Institute, said that until Americans feel the direct costs of foreign policy commitments, dissent within the movement may remain limited. “If they can win on the argument that they got it done on the cheap, they can fight back against their critics,” he said of the administration.
