The soap opera that is the U.S. House will be losing one of its leading ladies, and no one is more disappointed than the mainstream media. For five years, reporters ate up the drama that stuck to Georgia’s Marjorie Taylor Greene (R) almost as closely as her out-of-season tan. While the sudden, mid-term departure creates very real headaches for Republicans — and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) in particular — MTG’s exit isn’t all bad news.
Greene, who bled MAGA red, stunned everyone by announcing her resignation this coming January, unleashing a four-page “manifesto” that shames Republicans and the administration for, in her mind, failing to keep their promises to the American people. “No matter which way the political pendulum swings,” she claimed, “Republican or Democrat, nothing ever gets better for the common American man or woman.” Citing everything from the shutdown to the Epstein files and expiring health care subsidies, Greene outlined the flashpoints that led to her very public break with President Trump.
“I have too much self respect and dignity, love my family way too much, and do not want my sweet district to have to endure a hurtful and hateful primary against me by the President we all fought for, only to fight and win my election while Republicans will likely lose the midterms. And in turn,” Greene continued, “be expected to defend the President against impeachment after he hatefully dumped tens of millions of dollars against me and tried to destroy me. It’s all so absurd and completely unserious. I refuse to be a ‘battered wife’ hoping it all goes away and gets better.”
Despite calling her a “ranting lunatic,” “traitor,” and un-endorsing her,” Trump — at least in the last couple of days — has toned down the personal attacks, admitting that the firebrand shouldn’t necessarily end her political career for good. “It’s not going to be easy for her” to make a comeback, he told NBC News but, with surprising goodwill, said, “I’d love to see that.” For now, he insisted, she’s “got to take a little rest.”
Like his high-profile spat with Elon Musk, few could’ve predicted the wild turns the MTG-Trump feud would take in the weeks since their relationship soured. In words that are more than a little ironic now, the president once said at a Georgia rally that Greene was one person he would “never, ever want to have” as “my enemy.” And yet, as some commentators point out, her decision to leave Congress also shows the firm grip Trump still has on his party.
Others aren’t exactly sad to see the spotlight-craving Georgian go. National Review’s editors were candid about MTG’s mixed legacy. “The Georgia congresswoman hasn’t brought great credit to the institution, and her exit — abruptly, for purely political reasons — is par for the course. In her resignation statement,” they observed, “she lamented that loyalty isn’t a two-way street with Trump and complained that members of Congress should be able to vote their conscience. Well, sure. But what movie has she been watching the last several years? Trump practices a highly personal style of politics and demands near-total fealty to his dictates within his movement. This was the business Greene had chosen.”
As for the voters in her district, they said pointedly, “[I]t’s hard to imagine that they can do worse. Despite what everyone says, sometimes politics is about addition through subtraction.”
Speaking of math, Mike Johnson’s just got a little more complicated. The speaker has never had a comfortable margin, but it’s about to get less so when Greene vacates her office on January 5. Right now, a couple of other special elections hang in the balance — one to fill Rep. Mark Green’s (R-Tenn.) seat, where both parties are dumping millions into the district that Trump won. If Republicans can hang on there, Johnson can breathe a little easier. If that falls into Democratic hands, Punchbowl News’s Jake Sherman warns, the GOP’s majority would hang by a thread, 218-214.
“Democrats will gain a seat in Houston at the end of January when voters choose the late Rep. Sylvester Turner’s replacement. And on April 16, New Jersey voters will choose Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill’s replacement. That’s a seat that former Vice President Kamala Harris won by nine percentage points in 2024,” Sherman notes.
Of course, anyone following the House since the Louisianan took the gavel knows that Johnson is used to dancing on a knife’s edge when it comes to his majority. But in some ways, Greene’s departure may actually make the speaker’s job easier. For starters, he’ll be losing one of his loudest critics, who tried (unsuccessfully) to replace him in May of last year and has generally undermined and excoriated him at every turn. Then, of course, there are the conservative cracks she helped widen on core issues like Israel. Calling what’s happened in Gaza “genocide” put her at very real odds with most Republicans in Congress, who consider full-throated support for the Jewish state a non-negotiable in foreign policy.
Others point to her self-aggrandizing posture, which turned off a lot of colleagues. “Even Ms. Greene’s close associates acknowledge that her craving for attention thwarted her desire to be taken seriously,” The New York Times acknowledged.
Greene, FRC’s Quena González reminded people, “was, ironically, one of several Republicans who voted to oust the speaker, but despite her increasingly sharp criticism of the House leadership, Speaker Johnson had given her several opportunities to lead publicly on legislation and messaging. Her departure ultimately probably says more about her frustrations with the president, her ambitions for the future, and her desire to sidestep a tough primary.”
How much her bold move will impact the GOP remains to be seen. Leaders on both sides were already dealing with a pile of congressional retirements, including high-profile departures like former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), and Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.). The midterm shake-up — which includes at least 38 House members and 8 senators not seeking re-election so far — is a major plot in the story of Trump’s second term, especially since, as Nicholas Ballasy breaks down, “More Republicans than Democrats are leaving the House as both parties battle for control of the chamber. So far, 16 Democrats and 23 Republicans are retiring from the House. On the Senate side, four Democrats and four Republicans are stepping aside.”
According to González, this latest news shouldn’t send Republicans into panic mode, but it does underscore the steep challenges facing the majority heading into the election. History isn’t generally kind to the party in control of the White House in the midterms. And considering the ticking time bomb of appropriations bills (government funding runs out again in January), Obamacare’s expiring subsidies, and Americans’ ballooning frustration with the cost of living under Trump, a storm may well be brewing.
“This was not an unexpected development,” an unnamed Republican senator told The Hill. “Look at the 2018 midterm: We lost 41 seats in the House. The speaker can only lose three this time,” the senator said, referring to Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) 219-213 majority.” One big wild card in the elections is the redistricting war, which has hit some snags in the courts but will play a key role in what happens next November.
Until then, González insists, “Representative Greene’s retirement in January will likely not affect the balance of power in the narrowly-divided House, but it does highlight just how slim Republican control of Congress actually is. Other special elections between now and April will have a much more determinative effect.”
FRC Action Director Matt Carpenter agreed, pointing to the jam that both parties are in with so many vacancies. “Historically, incumbents win 90-95% of the time. So, for 46 members of Congress to announce they won’t run for reelection means each party loses that advantage of incumbency going into the critical 2026 midterm elections. An additional complicating factor is that some of the candidates retiring from Congress are in competitive districts, some even considered toss-ups. With razor-thin margins for a majority,” he emphasized, “winning those open races in competitive districts becomes an imperative for both parties.”
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Suzanne Bowdey serves as editorial director and senior writer at The Washington Stand.
