NOTORIOUS M.T.G.

Marjorie Taylor Greene and Donald Trump break up over Epstein.

- BY CHARLES BETHEA

What I’ve been doing is being just completely honest in my statements,” Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene said in mid-October. She was sitting beside the comedian Tim Dillon, during a taping of “The Tim Dillon Show,” a kind of Joe Rogan lite that recently featured Senator Bernie Sanders. It was a warmup of sorts for appearances that she’d soon make on center-left talk shows—“Real Time with Bill Maher,” “The View”—during a lengthy government shutdown that Greene blamed on her fellow-Republicans. She wore knee-high black leather boots, a jean jacket, and a solemn expression. Dillon had just asked Greene why she was suddenly saying things that resonated with a wider range of people, “including liberals.”

Liberals have had little to console them in the past year, and it was perplexing that one small bright spot was Greene, the MAGA congresswoman from Georgia. Since her arrival in Congress, in 2021, Greene’s initials have become as recognizable as those of the late liberal Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg—who Greene falsely alleged, a year before Ginsburg’s death, had been replaced by a body double. “MTG” is the title of a 2023 memoir by Greene, released by Donald Trump, Jr.,’s publishing house, and her initials appear on merchandise marketed to both her fans and critics: “MTG IS MY SPIRIT ANIMAL,” “DEFUND MTG,” “OMG MTG WTF.” It’s also the name of a hagiographic song by the MAGA rapper Forgiato Blow, in whose music video Greene appears steely-eyed sitting on the back of a lowrider and on a throne. “A real businesswoman, A.O.C.’s a featherweight,” Blow raps. “A southern belle, a little hood: watch her shake and bake.”