Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) isn’t the GOP’s typical target for a primary threat from the right.
And yet, after a number of high-profile disagreements with conservatives—Kevin McCarthy’s election to the speakership, the debt ceiling, and her removal from the Freedom Caucus—Greene has faced an onslaught of criticism from the far right, culminating in calls for her to face a primary challenge.
Somehow, though, Greene has managed to tamp down that revolution. This is the story of how.
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Sources with knowledge of the situation said there are two people most responsible for shutting down the primary threats against Greene: Donald Trump and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL).
Two months ago, former Trump adviser turned far-right podcaster Steve Bannon jumped into the anti-Greene movement as a vocal supporter of a primary challenge against the congresswoman. And just as quickly as he ramped up the campaign, he seems to have dropped it.
“I don’t know of any real effort to recruit a primary challenger,” a Republican operative close to Greene and Bannon said, calling it an “uphill battle” to challenge the Georgia congresswoman, who won her GOP primary in 2022 with nearly 70 percent of the vote.
“It’s a dumb idea,” the source continued.
Two sources familiar with the matter told The Daily Beast that it was Gaetz specifically who waved Bannon off the idea of taking down Greene, but Trump’s steadfast support for the congresswoman was a factor as well.
“My understanding is that the president backchannel-ed too,” one of the sources familiar with the situation said.
This source added that Trump was “not happy” with the idea of primarying Greene.
“That’s the point that Matt was trying to make to Bannon: You may not personally like Marjorie—but Marjorie is out there doing,” this source added. “So stop it, it’s counterproductive and you are only going to take one of our own off the playing field.”
A Trump adviser further told The Daily Beast that Bannon’s attempt to knife Greene was a move that wouldn’t have worked.
“This is the guy who got fired from the White House and promised to primary every Republican senator in 2018, except Cruz,” the source said. “He primaried none of them.”
Another source close to Trump told The Daily Beast that the former president has been “extremely positive” when speaking about the congresswoman.
(Spokespeople for Gaetz, Greene, Bannon, and Trump didn’t return The Daily Beast’s requests for comment.)
Despite Trump’s mounting legal problems, he remains the most powerful figure in the GOP. Crossing Trump, as Bannon knows, is a recipe for disaster in a conservative movement that remains enduringly loyal to the former president—no matter what he says or does.
While Bannon and others on the far right have taken pleasure in bashing Greene over her slightest movement toward the center, it’s abundantly clear that Trump is sticking with the congresswoman. And that’s likely enough to deter most of her detractors.
Greene came to Congress in 2021 as a controversial, conspiracy-loving Republican who had embraced QAnon, made antisemitic remarks, and spoken at a conference organized by a white nationalist. Largely because of those controversies, and her penchant for performative demonstrations “owning the libs,” she was an immediate darling of the right. But she was less beloved by GOP leadership.
But from her first term in Congress to her second, Greene found herself aligning a lot more with Speaker McCarthy, whom she helped propel to that position. She found herself at odds with her Freedom Caucus colleagues—particularly her old friend Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO)—and eventually she found herself on the outside of the HFC.
All of those shifts certainly made Greene a potential target for a primary from the right.
In early June, The Daily Beast reported Greene had privately acknowledged that Bannon and far-right activist Laura Loomer wanted to see the congresswoman ousted over not being conservative enough, suggesting Greene had become part of the Republican establishment.
“Steve, Loomer, and any other POS attacking me will not beat me,” Greene wrote in a text message obtained by The Daily Beast at the time. “Because of that, people have been reaching out to me because they don’t like what Steve is doing to me.”
Bannon appears to have gotten the message.
In a Right Side Broadcasting Network segment in July, Bannon struck a far different tune on Greene, praising the congresswoman’s efforts to fight “wokeness” in the military.
At another point in the interview, Bannon even complimented Greene’s boyfriend, RSBN host Brian Glenn, who in a twist too outlandish to parody was conducting the interview.
“You look like you’re 35 years old,” Bannon told the RSBN host, who is over 50.
“It’s all the skin products,” Glenn responded.
Bannon has made his career by being a conservative flamethrower. But at this point in his journey to the center of the MAGA movement, he could probably use more friends.
While Bannon was pardoned by Trump on his last day in office for his “We Build the Wall” scheme, he now faces New York State charges for allegedly duping donors in the plot.
Bannon was also sentenced to four months in jail over his refusal to testify before the Jan. 6 Committee. (His sentence has been delayed while he appeals.) Bannon has also been in and out of court for months over his refusal to pay his lawyers.
Further complicating the effort to primary Greene is Loomer.
Loomer, a far-right provocateur who has already run for Congress multiple times, previously threatened to move to Greene’s district and primary the congresswoman.
But Loomer seems to have cooled on the idea as well.
When reached by The Daily Beast, Loomer said the primary threat against Greene was a “non-story right now.”
One of the previously mentioned Trumpworld sources suggested that Loomer was only backtracking on the idea because Bannon was backtracking.
“He does not care about Laura Loomer,” this source said. “To Bannon, he weaponizes her because he does not care if she is destroyed in the process because she is a disposable cartridge in the gun.”
Loomer adamantly disagreed with the characterization that she was taking instructions from Bannon.
“I don’t work for Steve Bannon,” she said in a lengthy statement.
