House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is not the most powerful Republican in Congress, according to Mary Trump, the niece of former President Donald Trump.
Instead, Mary Trump pointed to Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, as the most powerful House Republican in a new interview this week. Greene, who last week began her second term in the House, has rose to national prominence for her right-wing policy positions and prior embrace of right-wing conspiracy theories.
The GOP lawmaker has emerged as the face of the Republican Party’s conservative wing, allowing her to shape the conservative stance on key issues, while also becoming a top foe of Democrats, who frequently criticize her over her many controversial remarks.
During an episode of her podcast The Mary Trump Show on Friday, the former president’s niece raised concerns about Greene’s influence on the GOP. Mary Trump, a vocal critic of the Republican Party, has used her platform to speak out against her uncle, who served as president from 2017 to 2021.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
“She’s actually speaker of the House, let’s be real,” Mary Trump said. “In two years, she has made herself the most powerful person—Republican—in the House of Representatives.”
During the discussion, Charlotte Clymer, her podcast guest, called out the GOP’s support for Greene, which continued even though she has previously voiced support for conspiracies. In one past Facebook post, Greene touted an unfounded and antisemitic conspiracy theory suggesting the Rothschilds, a wealthy Jewish family, profited off wildfires supposedly caused by “lasers or blue beams of light” from space.
“That is the most antisemitic, just complete Protocols of Elders of Zion bulls*** that has come from a sitting member of Congress in recent history. The fact that she is not only not in Congress, but completely just blacklisted from public events everywhere is insane to me,” Clymer said, referring to Greene’s unfounded claim.
However, Greene has sought to distance herself from some of these conspiracies, including QAnon.
“Like a lot of people today I had easily gotten sucked into some things I’d seen on the internet,” Greene said during a Fox News appearance earlier this month. “But that was dealt with quickly early on. I never campaigned on those things. That was not something I believed in. That’s not what I ran for Congress on. Those are so far in the past.”
Despite Mary Trump’s claim, Greene is generally not seen as the most powerful House Republican. During her first term, a bipartisan coalition of Democrats and Republicans voted to revoke her from her committee seats, which she only regained this month.
Still, many others have lamented on her impact on the Republican Party. Former GOP chairman Michael Steele said last month that Greene will likely influence McCarthy’s decisions on issues important to the far-right. In addition, former GOP Representative Joe Walsh, an Illinois Republican, shared that sentiment in an MSNBC interview this past November.
“McCarthy will probably be Speaker, but let’s be real. Marjorie Taylor Greene these next two years will be the Speaker of the House. She will have McCarthy by the short hairs every single day of the week for the next two years,” Walsh said.
Newsweek reached out to Speaker McCarthy and Greene’s offices for comment.
