Marjorie Taylor Greene

One of the defining characteristics of radical or extremist politics is the head-spinning speed with which devout loyalists are recast as dangerous heretics.

- Andrew Anthony

The latest example is the representative of Georgia's 14th congressional district, Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has just announced her intention to quit Congress.

In her resignation letter she said: “Standing up for American women who were raped at 14, trafficked and used by rich powerful men, should not result in me being called a traitor and threatened by the President of the United States, whom I fought for.”

Donald Trump said it was “great news for the country”.

Yet ever since arriving on the political scene, seemingly from nowhere, back in 2019, Greene has made a name for herself for being more Trumpian than Donald Trump: Mrs Mega Maga. As she admitted in 2021: “I wasn't a political person until I found a candidate that I really liked, and his name is Donald J Trump.”

Six months before Greene uttered those words, Trump had declared her “a future Republican star”. It's fair to say that Greene’s exaltation of Trump has been second only to the president's exaltation of himself.

Then a week ago, via Truth Social, Trump suddenly denounced Greene, 51, as a “traitor”, “wacky” and a “ranting lunatic”. All she does, he complained, is “COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN”.

The outburst was prompted by Greene’s vociferous campaign for the release of the Epstein files, which Trump had sought to keep out of the public eye. Unlike the majority of Republicans, Greene would not back down, despite her veneration of the president.

“She was pretty firm that these records should be released,” says Chuck Hufstetler, a Republican Georgia state senator who has criticised Greene’s “slash and burn” conspiratorial politics. He believes she has been instrumental in leading other Republicans to take a stand, which made Trump change tack and support the release of the files, adding: “I don’t think history is going to look kindly on all those viewed as protecting paedophiles.”