UPDATE (May 8, 2024 5:30 p.m. E.T.): On Wednesday afternoon, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene followed through on her threat and filed a motion to oust Republican Speaker Mike Johnson from power. Greene’s motion was met with boos by some of her GOP colleagues, and swiftly tabled by an overwhelming vote of 359-43.
Marjorie Taylor Greene went to Washington this week with only one thing on her mind: how to save face. After being told by former President Donald Trump to “stand down” on her threat to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson, the Georgia Republican was able to extract two meetings with Johnson, R-La.
After her first meeting with the speaker, Greene outlined her four demands on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast. They included a pledge to forgo any further aid to Kyiv and to cut Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith’s funding. The inflammatory lawmaker has always talked a big game, but did she have the leverage, and the savvy, to extract serious concessions? Following her second meeting with Johnson on Tuesday afternoon, the answer seems clear.
She got bupkis.
“This is not a negotiation,” Johnson demurred. But if it were, it sure seems like he’d be winning.
Greene outlined her four demands on Steve Bannon’s ‘War Room’ podcast.
Desperation is never a good look for a politician, and nothing screams desperation like Greene’s ongoing threats against Johnson. She knows her influence in the House is waning and that ally Trump simply doesn’t seem interested in backing her chaotic play.
Since being elected to the House in 2020, Greene has been one of Trump’s most rabid fans and defenders. Because Trump loves the flattery, he has mostly responded in kind. This dynamic has provided Greene with outsize — and totally undeserved — influence in the Republican conference, in the way a child threatens to tattle on a sibling. Which is why she thought she could probably get away with her childlike but dangerous antics.
Greene claimed at first her push for a motion to vacate was motivated in large part by the speaker’s decision to bring Ukraine funding to the floor for a vote, which passed with overwhelming support on both sides of the aisle. Ostensibly, she wanted to show Trump that she agrees with his reluctance to send further aid. She made a similar threat in March after Johnson worked with Democrats to pass a badly needed $1.2 trillion government spending bill, that also ultimately passed with bipartisan support.
But Greene has also known for weeks that Trump himself has little appetite for this fight. Just a few weeks ago, after Greene first said she would attempt to remove Johnson, the speaker traveled down to Mar-a-Lago for a photo-op with Trump. “I stand with the speaker,” Trump stated, while also noting that Greene was “a very good friend.” They may still be friends, but she no longer has much sway over Trump — if she ever had any.
The timing is just not good for Trump, and his campaign team knows it. In Trumpland, chaos is tolerated only when Trump himself is the cause. And Greene’s weeks of grandstanding have infuriated some in Trump’s inner circle, according to Politico. “One hundred percent distraction. Unwanted. And just stupid,” one such anonymous insider said in April.
With Team Trump on the sidelines, Greene’s other allies have evaporated. Democratic leaders have already pledged to help Johnson withstand any motion to vacate. But even strident conservatives like Rep. Bob Good, chair of the House Freedom Caucus, are pushing Greene publicly to end her crusade. “She’s pretty much operating on her own, with one or two others who have expressed support for what she’s doing,” Good said on NewsNation’s “The Hill Sunday.” Good said, “She doesn’t lead anyone.”
Greene isn’t even a viable potential VP contender anymore.
And should Trump win, don’t expect to see Greene in a key role. I predict this saga will push her even further to the fringe, a gadfly and a caricature. “I am so done with words,” Greene said on Tuesday afternoon. But increasingly, it seems pretty much everyone is done with Marjorie Taylor Greene. She may keep her seat in Congress, but the era of MTG may finally be ending. And with it, any need for us to pay the slightest bit of attention to what she has to say.
