On September 29, I took note of Marjorie Taylor Greene’s seemingly sudden turn against Donald Trump and his policies, and the Strange New Respect it seemed to garner from all across the mainstream media. It was amazing to see outlets like the New York Times suddenly rush to praise the flinty-minded independence of an antisemitic lunatic best known — through their own coverage, no less — for playing footsie with Nick Fuentes and “just asking questions” about whether Israeli space lasers might have caused California wildfires. None of that mattered. The opportunity to drive a wedge — to “heighten the contradictions” in the MAGA movement, as it were — was right there, begging to be exploited.

On November 14, after yet another around of media interviews — including an October 23 appearance on Tucker Carlson’s podcast where the two of them declared the MAGA movement “over,” and a November 4 sit-down with the unusually solicitous ladies of The View where she blamed the GOP for the shutdown — Donald Trump finally cut bait. He denounced her on Truth Social in a long, typically Trumpian rant, withdrawing his endorsement from her and encouraging people in Georgia’s 14th District to primary her next summer.

That weekend — like The Creature bitterly rounding on an abusive Dr. Frankenstein — Marjorie Taylor Greene went on CNN and rejected her creator Donald Trump, after which she apologized to viewers for all the horrible things she said and did during her MAGA-inspired career (without retracting them in any way). “I would like to say, humbly, I am sorry for taking part in the toxic politics; it’s very bad for our country . . . I really just want to see people be kind to one another.” (It was moving display, in the same way that one is moved to laugh pitilessly while watching a suddenly repentant arsonist plead for the fire department to put her own burning house out.)

And as of this morning, November 22, Marjorie Taylor Greene’s congressional career is over. She announced her surprise resignation from the House of Representatives last night in a written and videotaped statement that came as a true surprise to the media world — and apparently Speaker Mike Johnson as well, who was given zero prior warning that Greene would be shrinking his already perilously thin majority. Of course, being a woman of principle, she has chosen not to retire immediately, so that an early special election can be scheduled, but rather only on January 5, 2026 — the day after her five-year congressional pension vests. (Gotta grab that bag, MTG.)

Make no mistake, the surprise timing is an enormous middle finger to both Donald Trump and the House Republican leadership, and she made it clear in her statement that it was meant to be interpreted as such. This is an angry cry of betrayal as much as it is a resignation:

I have fought harder than almost any other elected Republican to elect Donald Trump and Republicans to power, traveling the country for years, spending millions of my own money, missing precious time with my family that I can never get back . . . Meanwhile most of the Establishment Republicans, who secretly hate him and who stabbed him in the back and never defended him against anything, have all been welcomed in after the election. [. . .]

I have too much self respect and dignity, love my family way too much, and do not want my sweet district to have to endure a hurtful and hateful primary against me by the President we all fought for, only to fight and win my election while Republicans will likely lose the midterms. And in turn, be expected to defend the President against impeachment after he hatefully dumped tens of millions of dollars against me and tried to destroy me.

It’s all so absurd and completely unserious. I refuse to be a ‘battered wife’ hoping it all goes away and gets better.

That is some fierce rhetoric (and there is much more; her statement runs four pages and goes to even more personal places), and I expect many of her arguments to resonate with the audience of disaffected Trump voters that clearly seems to be accumulating. (One immediate conclusion: I fear you are going to be seeing far more of this woman on podcasts and cable news than ever before.) Her rhetoric about the “Political Industrial Complex” and various populist appeals seem almost tailored to be the frame for a later populist political campaign, whether statewide or nationally.

But there is no way to spin the reality of her short-term loss: She was a congresswoman, now she will not be. I’ve seen some liken MTG’s sudden resignation to that old chestnut about “rats leaving a sinking ship,” but rats aren’t usually tossed overboard wearing cement shoes. Greene would not have resigned absent Trump’s wrath; she was chased from her office, which proves that few if any GOP lawmakers can survive his direct and baleful gaze. (She might have taken survival tips from fellow Georgian Brian Kemp, but that would have required her to be smart.)

“Loyalty should be a two-way street,” wrote Greene glumly in her resignation letter. This gets it exactly backwards for a man like Donald Trump, who understands loyalty as an exclusively one-way street, loyalty to him and his desires. I feel no pity for MTG, even as I analyze her resignation with a broader political lens – if she thought she was of any value to Donald Trump except as a mirror to reflect Donald Trump’s luster, she failed to understand what motivates the man who inspired her. But it seems possible Greene may have the last laugh: She can retain (or claw her way back to) nearly as much relevance to the audience she resonates with as an outsider, a gadfly, a brokenhearted True Believer. Greene has little need of respectable friends.

And this to me suggests the deeper dynamic to pay attention to: MAGA, once a collection of everything from the mainstream right to its fringes to the apolitical lumpenproletariat, is shredding and fraying as a movement during Trump’s second term. Trump can tighten his grip on the Washington legislators who he lashed to his agenda and personal brand, but he is no longer fully capable of governing the movement he created, more and more pieces of the unaligned populist masses are falling through his hands. Donald Trump used to say “I am MAGA.” Now an entire herd of successors, smelling weakness, are prepared to disagree.