Zürcher Nachrichten - Trump says firebrand ally Greene has 'lost her way' after criticism

But US President Donald Trump fell out with hard-right lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Greene on Monday, saying she had "lost her way" after a series of critical comments.

The firebrand Republican congresswoman from Georgia was previously a diehard pro-Trump supporter but has emerged as an unlikely -- and rare -- dissenting voice on a host of issues.

In recent months Greene, 51, has broken ranks with the 79-year-old president on issues ranging from Gaza to the affordability crisis.

The final straw came when she urged him to focus on domestic issues instead of foreign policy, as Trump hosted Syria's former jihadist president at the White House on Monday.

"I don't know what happened to Marjorie. She's a nice woman, but I don't know what happened. She's lost her way, I think," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked about her comments.

Trump said Greene was "now catering to the other side" and said she had "got some kind of an act going."

"I'm surprised at her. But when somebody like Marjorie goes over and starts making statements like that, it shows she doesn't know."

Greene's sudden shift has prompted speculation that she is lining up for her own presidential bid in 2028, although she has dismissed it as "baseless gossip."

The change is especially jarring as she made her name as a fierce defender of Trump's policies -- particularly to foreign media, whom she lashed out at in a number of clips that went viral.

She also embraced QAnon conspiracy theories and in 2018 asserted that California wildfires were ignited by a space laser controlled by the Jewish Rothschild family.

- 'Affordability is a problem' -

But Greene has increasingly taken a softer tone, and one that is at odds with Trump on a growing number of issues.

The first signs came when she split with other Republicans over the summer when she called Israel's war in Gaza a "genocide."

Then she became a leading voice calling for justice for victims of notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, despite Trump trying to dampen the reignited furor over the case.

More recently, Greene has been critical on healthcare and particularly the cost of living crisis, telling CNN that "affordability is a problem" -- just hours after Trump said that "I don't want to hear about the affordability."

She even appeared on the ABC television program "The View", a morning show widely viewed as left-leaning that previously hosted Democratic then-president Joe Biden and vice president Kamala Harris.

Then ahead of the visit of Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, whom she branded a "former Al-Qaeda terrorist", Greene said that "I would really like to see nonstop meetings at the WH on domestic policy not foreign policy."

Her comments, while more direct, in fact echoed Vice President JD Vance's remark last week that Republicans need to focus on the "home front" after heavy losses to Democrats in elections in New York, New Jersey and Virginia.

Trump defended his focus on foreign policy on Monday.

"It's easy to say, 'Oh don't worry about the world,' but the world is turning out to be our biggest customer," he said.

L.Muratori--NZN