By Steve Holland
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that Republican lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Greene has “lost her way” after her criticism that Trump needs to focus less on foreign policy and more on the home front.
Greene, a member of the House of Representatives from Georgia, has long been a reliable ally and fierce defender of Trump until recent weeks when she has taken positions at odds with the White House and her fellow Republicans.
On Monday, Greene said in a social media post that Trump was meeting with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, “a former Al Qaeda terrorist,” and that instead she would like to see “nonstop meetings at the WH on domestic policy not foreign policy and foreign country’s leaders.”
Greene’s increasingly vocal criticism has been noteworthy because most Republican lawmakers express deep loyalty to Trump to avoid drawing fire from him. Greene has largely tried to avoid criticizing Trump directly and says she still supports him.
Trump, asked about her criticism by reporters in the Oval Office, made clear he was aware of it.
“I don’t know what happened to Marjorie,” Trump said. “Nice woman, but I don’t know what happened. She’s lost her way, I think.”
As for her criticism of Trump’s focus on foreign policy, the president said he was working on problems abroad for a reason. He said al-Sharaa has had a “rough past” but that the US needs to work with him. He is a former al Qaeda commander who until recently was sanctioned by Washington as a foreign terrorist.
“I have to view the presidency as a worldwide situation, not locally. I mean, we could have a world that’s on fire, where wars come to our shores very easily,” Trump said.
Greene has called the war in Gaza a “genocide,” and has praised former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, for an “incredible career.” Trump has deemed Pelosi “evil.”
She told ABC’s “The View” last week that it was an embarrassment that the Republican-led House was not in session during the ongoing government shutdown.
Greene called Trump’s roll out of tariffs “bumpy” and said businesses have had trouble adjusting. She has disagreed with Trump’s contention that inflation is under control and has said Republicans need a plan to address healthcare costs.
Greene has said she believes the Trump administration should release any records it has on the case of the late Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender. Trump has dismissed the furor over the Epstein case as a “hoax” pushed by Democrats.
“I’m not some sort of blind slave to the president, and I don’t think anyone should be,” Greene told NBC News last month.
(Reporting By Steve Holland; Editing by Caitlin Webber and Stephen Coates)
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