Well, I never saw this coming.
After being underestimated and caricatured for nearly her entire time in public office, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has emerged as a singular Republican voice in Washington willing to speak truth to power, her own party politics be damned.
That includes her longtime ally and mentor President Donald Trump, his entire White House staff and Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson. It also includes nearly every powerful Republican in Georgia, including the ones who would much prefer that Greene, R-Rome, pipe down, fall in line or go away.
Greene’s latest truth bombs have been about the Affordable Care Act, the Obama-era legislation that 1.4 million Georgians currently use to access health insurance. Many ACA plans now come with significant subsidies to help people afford what have become luxury-level prices for almost any insurance plan.
Republican leaders have accused Democrats of demanding “health care for illegal immigrants,” but it turns out that not only are undocumented immigrants barred from the ACA, the Georgians using ACA plans include farmers, small business owners, small businesses employees and Greene’s own children.
“I’m going to go against everyone on this issue because when the tax credits expire this year my own adult children’s insurance premiums for 2026 are going to DOUBLE, along with all the wonderful families and hard-working people in my district,” she wrote on X on Monday.
That’s not the only issue where Greene has put herself on an island of the GOP loners lately.
She also told reporters this week that it is Republicans, not Democrats, who have the power to reopen the government and should, at least, be in Washington working instead of in their districts on an indefinite recess. And she’s pointed out that for all of the GOP’s complaints about Obamacare, Republicans have never come up with an alternative to solve the many broken parts of the American health care system.
Maybe the most dangerous position for Greene to take of all, however, is her insistence that the Justice Department release the full Jeffrey Epstein file, no matter who is implicated, even the president himself.
Greene has been quick to point out that she’s no less of a Republican than anyone else in Washington, and she has the far-right views on immigration, the 2020 election, the war in Ukraine and other issues to prove it.
But she’s also willing to tell Trump, the speaker and anyone else they’re wrong when she thinks so.
This is not a version of Greene most people expected when she ran for the 14th District seat in 2020, repeating wild conspiracies and praising Trump, but not earning his endorsement.
Once in Congress, Greene berated Democrats to the point of offense, even shouting down President Joe Biden during his State of the Union address more than once. She also quickly became the most loyal of Trump’s defenders after the 2020 election debacle and the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot.
With Trump confined to courtrooms across the country in 2021 and 2022, Greene headlined MAGA rallies in his absence, praising his record and insisting on his innocence.
The media, including me, assumed her to be a blind loyalist to Trump and Republicans, and a not-especially-bright member of Congress. I once wrote an entire column about the time Greene called the U.S. Capitol Police the “Gazpacho police,” rather than the “Gestapo police.”
But over time, Greene also began to position herself as a genuine power player, even in a Capitol soaked with other people’s ambition. She supported former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, even when he floundered, and used his reciprocal support to her advantage.
She was appointed to relevant congressional committees. She routinely outraised nearly every other member of Congress for her campaign and used the money to play the inside game.
All the while, she remained close to her district and constituents.
An early day with Greene driving around North Georgia showed a different side than her national persona. While she could be aggressive and acerbic with reporters and Democrats in televised committee hearings, she was warm and inquisitive with her constituents.
Several approached her that day to thank her for representing them. One woman told her she was her hero.
More recently, Greene began to float herself as a possible statewide candidate in Georgia in 2026. But as the powerbrokers in the Trump White House made their preferences known, she was not on the list.
It’s hard to say if that rejection was the catalyst for Greene’s latest round of rabble-rousing or if the Trump team rejected her because they suspected the wild card they helped empower in Greene might someday come back to play a hand against them.
Either way, it’s now the Republicans underestimating Greene, rather than the media and Democrats, either of whom could tell the GOP the mistake they’re making.
These days, I think a lot about the emerging threats to American democracy, with the biggest danger by far being the wholesale silence of Republicans in the face of every one of Trump’s actions. Without an engaged and courageous Congress, any president of any party can walk away with the power the Constitution intended Congress to have and destroy it forever.
On multiple issues recently, Marjorie Taylor Greene has become that courageous member of Congress. Where are the rest?
Even if you don’t agree with Greene on everything — or even most things — you have to admire her willingness in this moment to say what is true, even when other Republicans refuse to. Maybe it’s career suicide, or maybe it’s leadership.
Speaking of leadership, it’s not too late for Greene to file for one of those statewide offices her fellow Republicans thought she could never win. She could probably raise more money in a week than the men in the races have pulled in all year. She might have even won over a few doubters lately.
Stranger things have happened.
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