GOP Faces ‘Explosive Resignations’ as Reps Tire of Being Treated ‘Like Garbage’: Insider

Washington, D.C. – Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene stunned Washington on Friday by announcing her immediate resignation from Congress in a blistering 1,200-word manifesto that has sent shockwaves through the Republican Party and triggered urgent, behind-the-scenes warnings that her departure is only the opening act in a potential wave of early GOP exits.

The 51-year-old Georgia Republican declared she will leave her seat in the 14th District effective January 5, 2026 — just two days before the new Congress is sworn in — capping a spectacular public rupture with President Donald Trump that began when he withdrew his endorsement and labeled her a “ranting Lunatic” who has “gone Far Left.”

What began as a personal feud has rapidly metastasized into a broader indictment of Trump’s White House and Speaker Mike Johnson’s leadership, with senior House Republicans now telling Punchbowl News that morale inside the conference has never been lower and that “more explosive early resignations are coming.”

Greene’s central charge is simple and devastating: “the Trump administration and House Republican leadership have abandoned every priority they campaigned on, treating rank-and-file members with contempt while squandering the party’s razor-thin majority.”

In private conversations reported by Punchbowl, one senior House Republican described the atmosphere as a “tinderbox,” adding that the White House team “has treated ALL members like garbage” and that Speaker Johnson has enabled the dysfunction because “he wanted it to happen.”

That sentiment, the source insisted, is shared across ideological lines — appropriators, authorizers, hawks, doves, and the rank and file alike.

Members feel run roughshod over, threatened, and ignored even on small constituent-service wins such as grant announcements. “The arrogance of this White House team is off-putting,” the Republican said. “Members know they are going into the minority after the midterms. Mike Johnson will be stripped of his gavel and they will lose the majority before this term is out.”

The math is brutal. Republicans currently hold the House by the slimmest possible margin, 219 to 213. Three special elections loom that could erase that edge entirely before the 2026 cycle even begins: Tennessee’s 5th District on December 2 to replace the late Rep. Mark Green, Texas’s 18th District on January 28 following the death of Rep. Sylvester Turner, and New Jersey’s 11th District on April 15 after Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill vacates her seat in a district Kamala Harris carried by nine points in 2024.

Democrats are heavily favored in Texas and New Jersey and within striking distance in Tennessee.

If Democrats flip just two of those seats, Speaker Johnson could be presiding over a minority caucus by spring — and any additional retirement or illness would leave him powerless to pass even the most routine legislation.

Greene’s manifesto, delivered in a 12-minute video and accompanying thread on X, explicitly framed her exit as a refusal “to be a ‘battered wife’ hoping it all goes away and gets better.” She traced her disillusionment through a year of escalating clashes with Trump: criticizing his AI legislation in June, condemning the Iran bombings as endless foreign spending, demanding the House return early in October to address the looming Affordable Care Act subsidy cliff, and finally attacking Trump’s November meeting with Syrian leader Amad al-Sharaa — whom she branded a “former Al Qaeda terrorist” — on the Marine Corps’ 250th anniversary.

Her resignation arrives exactly one week after Trump’s November 14 Truth Social broadside withdrawing his endorsement and complaining that all Greene does is “COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN.” Greene fired back that same day with text messages showing her pushing for the full release of the Jeffrey Epstein files — an issue Trump had fought for months before abruptly endorsing the bipartisan mandate on November 16.

While Greene has long been an outlier in the conference, multiple sources told Punchbowl that her broader grievances about White House arrogance and leadership complacency are now widely shared.

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House retirements and resignations traditionally spike after the holidays, and members are openly asking why they should return to a Capitol that spends most of its time on censure resolutions and messaging bills rather than delivering tangible wins for their districts.

As one senior Republican put it, “the combination of a hostile White House, a speaker perceived as weak, and the looming loss of the majority has turned the conference into a tinderbox.”

Marjorie Taylor Greene just struck the match — and party leaders are scrambling to keep the rest of the caucus from following her out the door.