Alan Zendell, November 16, 2025

In a wide-ranging interview on CNN, this morning, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, “humbly apologized” to the American people for her role in the divisive, hateful politics that’s been a hallmark of the MAGA movement. Long one of Donald Trump’s staunchest supporters, to whom she donated, in her words, “millions of my own dollars,” she is now persona non grata with the White House. Greene criticized the president for ignoring his promises to his supporters to lower prices and focus on domestic priorities, saying she told Trump the country would be better off if he left Air Force One parked on the runway at Andrews, and focused on the needs of Americans.

But the issue that caused the split was the Epstein files. Greene believes the victims are entitled to justice and that it’s wrong to allow wealthy, powerful people to get away with sex trafficking and underage rape. She stopped short of accusing Trump of committing such acts himself, but said that given his close friendship with Epstein, the public deserves complete transparency. She suggested that it’s clear that there is a massive coverup underway, but said it’s not clear what that’s about.

Sounding like a converted sinner, she said America needs to come together and stop the hate and divisiveness. As someone who has routinely criticized Greene for her participation in all of Trump’s hate-mongering, I was happy to hear her contrition. If she’s sincere, it could be a major step toward salvaging our democracy from the fascists running Trump’s Cabinet. She said nothing like that, but I have to wonder, now that she’s the victim of Trump’s vitriol, and she believes her life is being threatened indirectly, the same way hate radicalized someone to murder Charlie Kirk, what she really thinks of Trump.

I won’t speculate on whether Greene was being truthful, other than to say she was impressive. Better to let events play out and see. She said she was setting an example for her MAGA colleagues, and since she knew speaking out would make her a target for Trump’s hatred, I believe that. One thing she did not say, however, was that speaking out against Trump, along with people like Thomas Massie (R-KY) is providing cover by setting an example of courage for her Republican House Caucus. It’s a cliché that there’s no truer believer than a convert. It’s also a cliché that unlikely heroes are always waiting in the wings until circumstances bring them to the fore. I’d love to believe that’s what I witnessed, this morning.

If we take Representative Greene at her word, this may be the moment most of us have been waiting for. By any objective measure, the only thing the Trump administration has accomplished was intimidating Congress into passing the overwhelmingly unpopular “Big, Beautiful Bill” that made the massive tax cuts for billionaires permanent while killing or greatly reducing programs that actually help Americans or protect the planet. Historians and political scientists who have studied authoritarian regimes and wannabe dictators like Trump, have understood since day one that he would likely be responsible for his own undoing. The questions were how much permanent damage the nation would suffer until then and whether his attempts to emulate Adolf Hitler had any chance of succeeding. They also understood that the monolith that MAGA seemed to have become was only as strong as its weakest links, and that once dominoes began falling, the movement would be reduced to a bunch of back bench extremists.

There are clear signs that that may be occurring. The 2025 elections, which saw sweeping victories by Democrats and the defeat of every candidate or position Trump supported, was the first indication. The Supreme Court testimony on Trump’s tariffs was another, dispelling the fear that the Court, too, would be intimidated into supporting everything Trump did. And yesterday, the Indiana legislature told Trump that they had no interest in redistricting the state as Trump demanded.

Even the dimmest of Trump’s supporters understand that his claims that foreign countries would pay his tariffs was a lie, as was his promise to end inflation as soon as he took office. And now Trump has to admit it publicly, as he did in his desperate attempt to convince the Court not to rule his tariffs were illegal. His principal defense seemed to be that the Government would have to refund about $200 billion to American companies and individuals who have been paying the tariffs throughout 2025, and that that would create a national security risk. Don’t even bother to seek the logic in that – there isn’t any.

I sense a wave of optimism in my very purple county in Maryland that I haven’t seen since the 2024 election. I feel it too. This nightmare will end with Constitution intact.