Marjorie Taylor Greene Declares ‘MAGA Is Dead’: ‘They’re In A Cult’ - Newsweek

Former Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has said "MAGA is dead" and claimed the pro-Trump movement has become a "cult."

The move shows the extent of the rift between President Donald Trump and Greene, who was previously one of his fiercest defenders in Congress. The pair fell out over foreign policy and the Jeffrey Epstein files in 2025, leading the president to brand her a "traitor" and a "ranting lunatic."

Greene announced that she was resigning as a representative for Georgia in November 2025.

Speaking at The Texas Tribune Festival on Thursday, Greene said: "When you vote for someone, not only are you supporting them, but you're holding them accountable.

"And if they can't be truthful and hold [Trump] accountable to his campaign promises that affect the entire country, then they're liars, and they're hypocrites and they're in a cult."

Greene was interviewed on stage by Robert Draper, The New York Times’ domestic correspondent.

She added that after telling Trump her son had received a death threat, the president texted back that she “deserved it.”

Newsweek contacted Greene and the White House for comment on Friday outside of regular office hours.

During her festival appearance Greene said that privately many Republicans loathe Trump but won’t criticize him publicly because they fear his ability to damage their careers.

She commented: “They’re terrified of that Truth Social post. Absolutely terrified of it. There’s a wrath that comes with it.”

The former Georgia congresswoman was sharply critical of Trump’s decision to launch military action against Iran in February commenting: “He’s betrayed his campaign promises. Will he make a lasting peace deal or will he make a peace deal that he goes back on probably after the midterms?”

During the 2024 presidential election campaign Trump said he was “the candidate of peace” arguing that if Democrat Kamala Harris won “only death and destruction await because she is the candidate of endless wars.”

Greene said she still supported the "America First" movement, which she characterized as a tighter coalition than MAGA. Describing herself as “politically homeless” Greene insisted she had not become a Democrat.

She said: “Just because I’m 100 percent against what Donald Trump is doing, and you hear me criticize the president because he changed, and Republicans have just fallen in line with him, that doesn’t mean that all of a sudden I’m in line with Democrat policies. I’m not.”

Speaking to Newsweek Mark Shanahan, an American politics expert who teaches at the University of Surrey in the U.K., said the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement no longer represents a “coherent ideology.”

He said: “MAGA isn't dead, but it has become the fervent support of one man rather than of a coherent ideology. Trump is a capricious leader who acts in his own interests rather than necessarily in the best interests of his supporters or, indeed, the USA.

“Trump 2.0 is not the outsider presidency fighting for guns, God and the working men and women of America, and the loose alliance of competing interests that make up the wider MAGA movement realize that it has become a very hollow cause.

“Despite what Taylor Greene says, there are still huge numbers of conservative Americans in thrall to everything Trump says or does. But they don't represent a majority of voters and that will hit the GOP hard in the midterms.”

Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Matthew Robinson and Tony Phillips.