US rep Greene trashes Trump’s MAGA credentials, implies Israel could be pressing him to keep Epstein files from public

Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene escalated her feud with Donald Trump on Sunday (16 November) questioning whether the US president is remaining true to his MAGA brand and suggesting that a foreign government could be influencing the administration's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files.

Greene appeared on CNN's State of the Union as divisions within the MAGA base continue to widen.

During the interview, she criticised Trump's shift toward a foreign policy-heavy agenda, arguing that it sidelines domestic concerns like inflation and soaring living costs — issues she insisted are core to the "America First" movement, reports Independent UK. 

"What the American people voted for with MAGA was to put the American people first," said Greene. 

"Stop sending foreign aid, and stop being involved in foreign wars... they very much deserve to be put first. Cost of living is far too high. Health insurance is completely out of control, and that's – those are two issues I've been very vocal on for months and months now, long before Republicans were shocked when those big losses came on this past Tuesday's election."

CNN host Dana Bash then asked whether Greene believed Trump was no longer representing the movement he founded.

Greene replied by pointing to specific policy decisions. "Promoting H-1B visas to replace American jobs, bringing in 600,000 Chinese students to replace American students' opportunities in American colleges and universities; those are not America first positions. Continuing to, really, travel all over the world doesn't help Americans back at home."

She added that she wanted "nothing but a constant focus in the White House on a domestic agenda".

The interview also turned to the administration's refusal to release the Epstein investigation files — an issue that has triggered renewed insinuations about Trump's past ties to Epstein after a congressional committee published new emails sent to and from Epstein earlier this week. Trump has repeatedly denied wrongdoing.

Among the emails was an exchanged message with Fire and Fury author Michael Wolff in which Trump wrote that he "knew about the girls". The White House has insisted he had no knowledge of Epstein's illegal activities during their friendship.

On CNN, Greene said she believed it was possible a foreign government was pressuring the administration to block further disclosures about Epstein's crimes. 

Citing reports about Epstein's communications with former Israeli defence minister Ehud Barak, she raised the possibility that Epstein had acted as an intelligence asset.

"I think the right question to ask is, 'was Jeffrey Epstein working for Israel?'" Greene told Bash.

When pressed by CNN to say whether she believed Israel was directly pressuring Trump, Greene pulled back.

"No," she responded.

"I simply just asked, out loud, 'is there a foreign government' — it could be any foreign government — but is a foreign government pushing to cover this up?"

The US president has been embroiled in controversy over the Epstein issue since early last week, when the government shutdown ended and the House resumed its push for the release of the files.