It seems that Marjorie Taylor Greene, once the darling of Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again movement and an avowed conspiracy theorist, has had a come to Jesus moment.

Following the US’s weekend airstrikes in Venezuela and the capture of President Nicolás Maduro, Greene, who ended her tenure as a Republican congresswoman this week, called out her former boss and his administration, saying Americans are “sick and tired” of the government taking action “that doesn’t serve the American people”.

Illustration by Simon Letch

That MTG, as she came to be known during her five years in office, is going off script isn’t especially significant in its own right. Her willingness to go rogue is what helped make her a cult-like figure among the far right in the first place. What’s significant is that someone Trump once said had always been with him is breaking ranks so publicly.

Only 18 months ago, during the Republican National Convention and days after an assassination attempt on his life, Trump chose Greene to sit beside him. In turn, she described him as “the leader America deserves” and “the founding father of the America First movement” in her speech to the party.

Yet within months of Trump’s return to Washington last year, Greene began showing signs she was having second thoughts.

Throughout 2025, she criticised the US government’s support of Israel, called the war in Gaza a genocide, condemned the airstrikes against Iran and denounced plans to send financial aid to Ukraine. She supported an expansion of the Affordable Care Act, attacked the government shutdown, objected to AI and cryptocurrency policies that she said would benefit billionaire donors and leave working-class Americans worse off, and........

© The Sydney Morning Herald