Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) doubled down on her criticism of President Trump in an interview on CBS’s “60 Minutes” on Sunday, less than a month after the longtime Trump ally announced she would resign from Congress amid her public feud with the president.
In the interview, Greene stood by the defiant stances she’s taken against the president in recent months and said some of her GOP colleagues stay mum because they’re “terrified” of publicly breaking with the president, as the Georgia congresswoman has.
Greene addressed the rise in death threats against her and her family, saying it’s clear to her that Trump’s own words have contributed to the uptick.
With less than a month before her self-determined departure date from Congress, Greene addressed questions about her political future.
Here are five takeaways from Greene’s “60 Minutes” interview:
Greene says Republicans in Congress make fun of Trump behind his back
The Georgia congresswoman said it would “shock people” to hear how her GOP colleagues talk about the president behind closed doors.
Greene said, as recently as last year, her colleagues would make fun of Trump but started “kissing his ass” when he won the 2024 GOP primary.
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“Behind the scenes, do they talk differently?” CBS anchor Lesley Stahl asked in the interview, which aired Sunday.
“Yes,” Greene said.
“How?”
“Oh it’s, it would shock people,” Greene replied.
“Well, let’s shock people,” Stahl said.
“Okay. I watched many of my colleagues go from making fun of him, making fun of how he talks, making fun of me constantly for supporting him, to when he won the primary in 2024 they all started — excuse my language, Lesley — kissing his ass and decided to put on a MAGA hat for the first time,” the Georgia Republican said.
Greene says Republicans are terrified of Trump
Greene told Stahl that more Republicans don’t speak out against the president when they disagree with him because they’re “terrified” of being targeted by him.
“I’m gonna ask you about the almost solid support he has among Republicans in Congress. Is there, in that support, fear? Does the support come about because they’re afraid that they’ll get death threats?” Stahl asked.
“I think they’re terrified to step outta line and get a nasty Truth Social post on them. Yes,” Greene responded.
“And they’re watching what happened to you?”
“Yes,” Greene replied.
Greene says Trump fueled death threats against her family
The Georgia Republican said the president’s own words “directly fueled” death threats against her son.
“The subject line for the direct death threats on my son was his words: ‘Marjorie Traitor Greene,’” Greene said, referring to the president’s newfound label for the congresswoman.
“Those were death threats directly fueled by President Trump,” Greene added.
The congresswoman said she alerted the president and Vice President Vance to the death threats she was getting, and Trump, according to Greene, sent an “extremely unkind” response.
“I told him. I told JD Vance. I told them all. Sent those directly to them,” Greene said. “JD Vance replied back to me, ‘We’ll look into it.’ I got [a] response from President Trump that I will keep private, but it wasn’t very nice.”
Stahl pressed: “Give us a hint of what the president said.”
“It was extremely unkind,” Greene replied.
Greene says Trump policies aren’t America first
Greene also reiterated her concern that the president is too focused on his international agenda and isn’t prioritizing needs of Americans.
“For an America First president, the number one focus should have been domestic policy, and it wasn’t. And so, of course I was critical because those were my campaign promises. Once we fix everything here, then, fine, we’ll talk to the rest of the world,” she said.
Greene also noted that when the president labeled her a traitor was around the same time he was entertaining controversial figures in the Oval Office.
“He did this in the same time span where President Trump brought in the al Qaeda leader that was wanted by the U.S. government, who is now the president of Syria. Then within a week, he brought in the Crown Prince, MBS, who murdered an American journalist. And then he brought in the newly elected Democrat Socialist mayor of New York,” she said. “That was the time span that he called me a traitor.”
Greene now describes her ideological viewpoint as “America first” but wouldn’t accept the MAGA label, when asked in the interview
“Are you MAGA?”
“I’m America first,” Greene said.
“And that’s not the same as MAGA?” Stahl followed up.
“MAGA is President Trump’s phrase,” Greene said. “That’s his, his political policies. I call myself America First.”
“But you’re, you’re not saying you’re MAGA. That’s over,” Stahl said.
“I’m America first. Yep,” Greene added, shaking her head no.
Greene says she’s not planning on running for president
Greene said she has no further political ambitions at the moment.
“People want to know, is this a true conversion, a true change of heart? Or is it kind of a shrewd political calculation? A lot of people think you’re doing it and that you, in a year or so, are going to run for some other office,” Stahl asked Greene.
“I have zero plans, zero desire to run for president. I would hate the Senate. I’m not running for governor,” Greene replied.
She noted people in Washington find it hard to believe that the congresswoman doesn’t have a long-term plan.
“Lesley, it doesn’t matter how many times I say it. I’ll have face-to-face conversations with people, and I’ll flat out tell them to their face, and they won’t believe me. And they’re like, ‘Oh yeah, sure.’ They’ll wink at me, and I’m like, ‘Okay,’” Greene said.
“It’s like, I don’t know how to make it more clear,” she continued.
