ROME, Ga. — Not many Republican politicians have dared criticize President Donald Trump — and a few bold souls who’ve tried have seen their careers collapse.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is now facing the president’s wrath, but in a sign of broader fissures within the MAGA movement, she just may survive the blowback, interviews with about 20 of her constituents suggest.
Once an unflinching Trump loyalist, Greene now faults him for spending too much time on meet-and-greets with foreign leaders when many people at home are struggling to pay bills.
“People in my district are having a very hard time,” she told NBC News in a recent interview.
“And I think that many voters are feeling a little disenfranchised because the domestic issues have not been the priority,” she added.
Trump, in turn, is angry about her apostasy. He pulled his support for her and has signaled that he’d be open to endorsing a Republican challenger to her in the 2026 midterm congressional elections.
He’s called her a “traitor” and said she is “wacky,” a “lunatic.”
Greene has bristled over what she calls his “vicious attacks” and worried that they are “a dog whistle to dangerous radicals that could lead to serious attacks on me and my family.”
All of which leaves voters in northwest Georgia feeling a bit like a heartsick family swept up in an unexpected divorce.
“That’s not right. It’s not right,” Debbie Dyer, 60, said of Trump’s accusation. “She should not be seen as a traitor. She’s trying to do the best for the American people and I think Donald Trump should accommodate her and work for America.”
“She has a lot of courage and tells it like it is,” added Dyer, who lives in Dalton, near the Tennessee border, and works at a carpet company.
Greene's office did not return a request for comment for this article.
Greene’s 14th Congressional District likes Trump, but it likes her, too. Greene often eats at the Blossom Hill restaurant, with her “go-to” sandwich being the “Angry Pig” (pulled pork, jalapeños and fried onions served with a choice of sides).
Trump won her district in the 2024 presidential race with 68% of the vote; Greene won re-election with 64%. Virtually everyone interviewed has heard about the feud between the president and the congresswoman. Who goes with mom; who stays with dad?
“Some people are struggling with it. Some are choosing Team Marjorie, and some are Team Trump,” said Angela Dollar, a local Republican official in Floyd County, part of Greene’s district.
As for Dollar: “I can like two people who don’t like each other. My hope is they’ll reconcile.”
What hasn’t happened may be the most noteworthy part of the drama: Greene’s voters don’t appear to have repudiated her even though she’s now a target of Trump’s ire.
A bad word or non-endorsement from Trump has at times been enough to swing elections.
Former Rep. Liz Cheney lost her Wyoming seat to a Republican challenger in a race that hinged on her work for the House committee investigating Trump’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
But there are signs that Trump’s fierce grip on Republicans is loosening. After Greene and some other GOP lawmakers called for the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, Trump relented and dropped his opposition to an effort forcing the Justice Department to publicize records about the late convicted sex offender. Congress passed the measure with near-unanimous support Tuesday and sent it to Trump, who said he will sign it.
At this point, at least, Greene is showing some political resilience in the face of Trump’s vilification.
Indeed, some Republicans commended her for standing up to the president and said they have no wish to abandon her.
Susan Cooper, 60, a Republican who along with Dollar came to a food donation center in Rome on Tuesday night to pack supplies for school children, said: “I feel like what she’s doing is she’s just standing up for what she personally has a belief in. And you know, it takes a lot to stand up against the president, or any president for that matter.”
Though she said she still supports the president, Cooper rejected the idea that Greene is a “traitor.”
“I would much prefer him not say that,” she said.
While mall walking with his wife in Dalton, Richard Houston said he has voted for both Greene and Trump and still supports both.
“She’s brave. She doesn’t fit in with the flow,” said Houston, 65, who supplies materials to the construction industry. “That’s a good thing. That’s a quality thing. She doesn’t follow the status quo. And she makes her decisions based on that.”
Trump’s argument that he’s revived a moribund economy seemed to fall flat here. Like Greene, residents voiced worries about the cost of everyday necessities.
At Northwest Georgia Hunger Ministries in Rome, where local Republicans packed food donations Tuesday, more people are coming in for free supplies, said Lindsey Kilby, the executive director. Since the charity opened in 2022, the number of people served has risen 39%, she said.
Cherlin Salcido, 23, a saleswoman who lives in Dalton, said: “The rent here is more insane than it has ever been.”
Over breakfast at the Oakwood Cafe in Dalton, Sam Johnson, 82, said that Trump “needs to do something to stimulate this economy. This economy ain’t good.”
He praised Greene, saying he reached her on the phone a month ago to air his objections to a nearby bioenergy plant.
“She’s plainspoken. You know where you stand with her,” said Johnson, whose business is golf cart sales.
Houston voted for Trump and still supports him. He said, though, that he hasn’t had an easy time coping with tariffs — a centerpiece of Trump’s economic plan.
“I’ve got tariffs on most everything I buy and I can’t pass them on,” he said. “If I pass them on, it’s going to be worse than it is now. If I pass them on, I might as well shut the doors and go home. I’ve got to absorb that.”
Asked if others are in the same boat, he said, “Some are in a yacht; some of us are paddling for our lives.”
Nearly two-thirds of registered voters, including 30% of Republicans, said in a recent NBC News poll that Trump has fallen short of their expectations on the economy.
Pointing to the off-year elections in which Democrats swept key races, Greene said in the interview: “The economy is extremely important and I think that was a significant factor in elections” on Nov. 4.
What’s next for Greene is unclear. Steve Bannon, a former senior White House official in Trump’s first term who remains close to the president, said he expects her to run for president in 2028.
“There’s no downside for her,” Bannon said in an interview. “She’ll get to run around the country getting her message out while raising a ton of money.”
Greene told Vanity Fair in an interview, “I am not considering running for president.”
A question is whether she can knit together a following that includes elements of “America First” Republicans and, perhaps, independents who like her focus on affordability and might give her a second look.
If her rift with Trump lasts, the president could be a spoiler.
Clay Morgan, another mall walker in Dalton, said that Greene is “blowing up her whole future in the Republican Party.”
“I’m sure you know a lot about Trump,” he said. “You don’t want to get on his bad side.”
Morgan, 63, a homebuilder, said he listens to Greene and “I’m like, ‘Oh, honey. Phew. Big mistake.’”
