Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, arrives for the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, on Jan. 20, 2025.
Vendors sell Trump merchandise outside Capitol One Arena on Jan. 20, 2025. President Donald Trump attended a parade and gave a speech at the arena after his inauguration earlier in the day.

President Donald Trump has made life in America so profoundly bizarre that GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is starting to make sense.

In an Oct. 9 interview, the Georgia congresswoman and Olympic-level nutter – she of the Jewish space lasers and QAnon conspiracies – bucked Trump and her own party and advocated for health care subsidies and the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, while accurately stating that Trump has not lowered prices and “Americans are continuing to have a very difficult time getting by.”

I’ll give you a moment to collect yourself or have someone fetch the smelling salts.

I thought Republicans were only allowed to talk about Trump’s varying degrees of perfection and handsomeness. But here’s one of the most obnoxious, loony MAGA devotees effectively saying that the Democratic explanations for the government shutdown – health insurance costs and GOP-led cuts to Affordable Care Act subsidies – are legitimate.

“This is such a crisis that I’m willing to say, ‘OK everyone, we have to do something about this,’” Greene told CNN, of all places. “What am I hearing from my constituents? It’s great, we track all the calls that come into my office. About 60% of the calls coming in right now are calls of support and saying, ‘Yes, health insurance is a crisis.’ They’re telling us stories about how they’re already paying $2,000 a month with $10,000 deductibles. I’m getting phone calls from people that are saying that if the ACA tax credits expire, they aren’t going to be able to have health insurance, they’re going to have to drop it.”

Why is Marjorie Taylor Greene saying things that are correct?

That flies directly in the face of Republican shutdown messaging.

Greene went on to say: “Prices have not come down; that is a reality. People’s wages have not gone up; that’s another reality. So Americans are continuing to have a very difficult time getting by.”

WHAT?!? I was told by none other than the president himself that we have the hottest country in the world with the best economy anyone has ever seen. He has said that prices and inflation are down, and that America has never been better.

For once in my life, I can say this: Somebody is lying, and it’s not Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Greene's push to release Epstein files has to rile up Trump

The cherry on the “Donald Trump DEFINITELY Didn’t Approve These Talking Points” sundae was Greene making clear she wants to see the Epstein files released. She even suggested that Speaker Mike Johnson isn’t calling the House back into session to avoid a vote on a GOP lawmaker’s discharge petition to release the files.

“I can't conclusively say if that's why the House is not in session, but the House should be in session,” Greene said. “If it's to avoid the discharge petition, why drag this out? That is going to have 218 signatures, so I say go ahead and do it and get it over with.”

She also said of the Epstein files: “I genuinely do not understand why there has been any effort to hide this and prevent it from coming out. … This involves women who were raped, women at 14 years old who were raped, and they say there’s more people involved. I don’t know how anyone in their good conscience can be against letting that information come out.”

Wow.

Don't mistake Greene for a reformed figure – she's still a con artist

Now, before anyone suggests Greene has “joined the resistance” or abandoned MAGA, keep in mind that she said during the same interview: “I am a Republican and I support the president.”

Also, and more important, keep in mind that Greene – like so many MAGA figures – is a Grade-A grifter who craves the thing all good opportunists need: attention.

Trump’s entire political structure is built on right-wing weirdos and fabulists like Greene. It’s a collection of podcasters and hucksters and merch-peddlers. And they all rely on the attention economy to satisfy their greed or egos or both.

Trump is unpopular. He’s aging swiftly. The economy, as Greene so boldly noted, is not good for most Americans. Trump is engaged in the kind of government overreach the far right has long railed against, whether it's dispatching troops to the streets of U.S. cities or cracking down on free speech.

Before long, MAGA will need a new figurehead, and you can bet every fast-talking, fact-averse tail-kisser who helped Trump build his faux-populist racket wants a shot at the con artist crown.

Greene's defiance may point to a larger problem in MAGA-world

That would require establishing whether separating oneself from Trump, daring to defy MAGA orthodoxy, will bring the coveted attention. Whether it might start a faint drumbeat of, “Well, Trump kind of failed me, but this new person? That’s someone I can get behind!”

I don’t think Greene has come to her senses. I don’t think she suddenly cares about governing or the average, hardworking American. I think she’s a gifted grifter dipping a toe in the pool of Trump defiance to see if it makes waves she can ride.

I think she sees signs that there are cracks in the MAGA foundation.

And for the first and probably last time ever, I hope she’s right.

Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @rexhuppke.bsky.social and on Facebook at facebook.com/RexIsAJerk

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: I can't believe it either, but Marjorie Taylor Greene is starting to make sense | Opinion

Reporting by Rex Huppke, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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