WASHINGTON — The latest friction between Donald Trump and Georgia Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene has exposed cracks in the MAGA coalition over perceptions that the president has failed to live up to his economic campaign promises.

Even before the longest government shutdown in American history, the firebrand Republican congresswoman had begun orchestrating an eyebrow-furrowing political shift by speaking out against Trump, to whom she had — by design — been closely aligned. Several GOP sources said this week they aren’t sure just what Greene might be up to.

Whatever her objective, she has managed to get Trump’s attention as he juggles a number of complex foreign policy matters and, after last week’s Democratic electoral victories across the country, economic headwinds at home.

In a statement to CQ Roll Call provided via a spokesman Tuesday, Greene signaled a desire to remain at least partly aligned to Trump: “I haven’t lost my way. I’m 100 percent America first and only!”

But in recent weeks, she has questioned whether Trump has lived up to his “America First” campaign slogan. On Monday, she used the president’s White House meeting with Ahmad al-Sharaa — a former al-Qaida operative turned U.S. prisoner turned senior Islamic State leader turned Syrian president — to question whether Trump had his priorities straight.

“The new leader of Syria is a former Al Qaeda terrorist wanted by our government who is meeting with President Trump today at the White House on the U.S. Marine’s 250th anniversary,” Greene wrote on X. “He rose to power in Dec 2024, sanctions were lifted off Syria in June, and many Christians and minority groups have been killed before and after sanctions were lifted.

“However, I would really like to see nonstop meetings at the WH on domestic policy not foreign policy and foreign country’s leaders,” she added.

Asked in the Oval Office later Monday about Greene’s newfound rebellious streak, Trump did not hold back.

“I don’t know what happened to Marjorie. Nice woman, but I don’t know what happened. She’s lost her way, I think,” he said before launching into a lecture on what most presidents and their press secretaries describe as a requirement to walk (domestic policy) and chew gum (foreign policy) at the same time.

“I have to view the presidency as a worldwide situation, not locally. I mean, we could have a world that’s on fire, where wars come to our shores very easily. If you had a bad president, we had a horrible president, and we ended up with Russia-Ukraine and we ended up with other disasters too,” Trump said. “When you’re president, you really sort of have to watch over the world.”

“Otherwise, you’re going to be dragged into a world war. … First of all, that (Russia-Ukraine) war would have never happened if I was president. And if I weren’t president, that war could have led to World War III,” he said. Moments later, Trump said a president must also do things such as pressing China on rare earth minerals — otherwise, “there wouldn’t be a radio, there wouldn’t be a television, there wouldn’t be internet.”

He also accused Greene of “catering” to Democrats and having “some kind of an act going.”

Greene’s Tuesday statement echoed a longer response posted that morning on X — but in the social media version, she pledged allegiance to a different higher power.

“The only way is through Jesus. That’s my way, and I’ve definitely not lost it, actually I’m working hard to put my faith into action,” she wrote. “My job title is Representative. That’s for Georgia’s 14th district and the American people, no one else.”

Speaker Mike Johnson brushed off any notion of a major change from the outspoken Georgian during an interview with SiriusXM last week.

“I’m not unaccustomed to hearing criticism from Marjorie. We have intense fellowship as we say in the Deep South,” Johnson said. “And she knows I’ve got an open door. She can come in and talk with me anytime. But she goes on these shows. She likes to get the big interviews, and that’s fine. Everybody has the right.”

“So I will tell you I have a weekly conference call with all the House Republicans, and I talk to them more often than that,” he said, adding that “99.5 percent of all the House Republicans understand exactly what we’re doing and why. Marjorie has a difference of opinion. That’s up to her.”

‘In her place’

Despite Johnson’s efforts to manage his often-raucous conference, the Trump-Greene verbal spat did expose some friction on the political right over the president’s second-term priorities.

“How many times, during this current term, has this president been out in the heartland of the country talking to the people? He’s spent more time going around the world,” Republican former Rep. Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania said during a telephone interview last week. “I’m not saying the foreign policy issues he’s been focusing on aren’t important, not at all. But a president needs to spend time out in the country connecting with the people.”

Laura Loomer, a conservative influencer known to have the president’s ear, jumped to Trump’s defense, saying he put Greene “in her place.”

“President Trump just confirmed publicly what I have been telling you all for months,” Loomer wrote in an X post. “He can’t stand her and she’s lying about being close with him and lying about speaking to him regularly. I’ve known this for months.”

In another X post, she added: “He’s so gracious and gave her so many chances. He truly waited so long & held his tongue for a while, but enough is enough. He sure let her have it today. Imagine calling yourself MAGA and then going on CNN to trash Trump.”

Democratic strategist Mike Nellis said Greene’s shift in tone comes at a time when the GOP had turned into a “personality cult.”

“A one-man show run by a lame-duck, vengeful wannabe strongman named Donald J. Trump. If you speak out, he’ll hand you your pink slip in 2026. Take Don Bacon from Nebraska. One of the only Republicans talking honestly about inflation. Now he’s done. Not running for re-election. That seat is wide open, and Democrats have a real shot to flip it,” Nellis wrote in a Nov. 6 Substack post.

He went on to say that Greene was “the only other Republican calling out Trump on the economy.”

“Watching her ‘go woke’ has been wild,” he said. “But the fact that she is reading the polls, recognizing how bad things are, and trying to reposition ahead of the rest of her party? That tells you everything you need to know.”

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