Politics

Every high-profile Trump supporter to turn against the president during his second term

Olivier Touron/AFP via Getty Images, Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images and Carmen Mandato/Getty Images

While US vice president JD Vance went from branding Donald Trump “reprehensible” and an “idiot” to being a senior figure in his administration, several long-term supporters of the president of the United States have turned on the convicted felon during his second term.

We’ve rounded them up for you below…

Marjorie Taylor Greene

There was a time where Marjorie Taylor Greene – or MTG, for short – was a staunch supporter of Trump. Back in March last year, she wore a red MAGA cap which said ‘Trump was right about everything’.

But come November, and the then Georgia representative clashed with the US president over the Epstein files, after Trump announced on Truth Social that he was withdrawing his support for the politician because “all I see ‘Wacky’ Marjorie do is COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN”.

Greene clapped back by saying the Epstein files “sent him over the edge”, and later thanked people for their support on X/Twitter by tweeting: “I never thought that fighting to release the Epstein files, defending women who were victims of rape, and fighting to expose the web of rich powerful elites would have caused this, but here we are. And it truly speaks for itself.”

And Trump, ever a fan of nicknames, proceeded to refer to MTG as “Marjorie Taylor Brown”, explaining that the name is because “green grass turns Brown when it begins to ROT!”

She was even called a "traitor" by the convicted felon, with Greene later responding by redefining the term and saying: “A traitor is an American that serves foreign countries and themselves. A patriot … serves the United States and Americans like the women standing behind me.”

Greene ended up resigning as a representative towards the end of the month.

But it wasn’t just the top man himself for which MTG had some strong words, as she appeared on 60 Minutes in December and said some of her Republican colleagues “kiss Trump’s a** out of fear”.

In the same month, when news broke of filmmaker Rob Reiner and his wife being found dead in his home, and their son Nick being arrested and booked for their murder, Trump responded by claiming Reiner died “due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME”.

Greene was among those who criticised Trump’s reaction, writing: “This is a family tragedy, not about politics or political enemies."

In March, MTG appeared on The Megyn Kelly Show and slammed Trump’s war in Iran, telling the broadcaster: “We’re in another f***ing war and we’ve got American troops being killed."

She continued: “I think it’s time for America to rip the Band-Aid off and we need to have a serious conversation about what the f*** is happening to this country and who in the hell are these decisions being made for and who is making these decisions.”

A month later, after Trump took to Truth Social and said, “open the F***in’ Strait, you crazy b******s, or you will be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah”, Greene said everyone in the Trump administration who claims to be a Christian “needs to fall on their knees and beg forgiveness from God and stop worshipping the President and intervene in Trump’s madness”.

She went on to add: ““I know all of you and him and he has gone insane, and all of you are complicit.

“Our President is not a Christian and his words and actions should not be supported by Christians.”

In July, the ex-representative branded Trump a “traitor” and called out the president’s “weird embarrassing crap” after he shared a video parodying Rick and Morty.

Joe Rogan

The popular podcaster has voiced his opposition to certain Trump policies in the past year, including back in October when he criticised the “aggressive tactics” deployed by agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in recent raids.

“Tearing families apart doesn’t make the country safer – it just creates fear,” he said.

July saw Rogan make critical comments around Trump’s war in Iran, stating that there is “no clear way to resolve this at all” and that the conflict “makes America an enemy and it makes us less safe”.

And then, a month later, he called Trump’s huge cryptocurrency earnings “nuts” and said the president’s controversial executive order changing Lake Ontario to ‘Lake America’ “doesn’t make any sense”.

“Like who cares? It's Lake Ontario, it's a good name, we've had that name forever,” he said.

Tucker Carlson

The former Fox News host has criticised the 80-year-old’s war with Iran on numerous occasions, despite once being such a supporter of the Republican that he was in awe of him for making a McDonald’s order (yes, really).

He also endorsed Trump for president ahead of the 2024 election.

However, in an episode of The Tucker Carlson Show released in April, he despaired that the conflict in the Middle East is causing “the end of the global American empire”, and a few weeks after this, he apologised for “misleading people” when it came to his support of Trump.

Two months later, and he was calling out Trump’s approach to reaching an agreement with Iran, saying: “Trump is not a great diplomat. He is not good at this.

“What we’re learning is Trump is a spotty commander-in-chief and not a dealmaker.”

In the same month, he appeared on the Can’t Be Censored podcast and said there was “no chance” he would support the Republican Party with Trump at the helm.

““I’ve voted Republican my entire life… I have been a consistent defender for 35 years of the Republican Party, I mean a very consistent defender, but there is no defending this because it’s immoral and it’s exactly the opposite of what a political party in a democracy is charged with doing, which is representing its own voters, its own citizens, its own nation, and they’re not doing that so, no, I’m out. And if I’m out, then I think a lot of other people are out,” he said.

In another podcast appearance in August, this time on Stephen A Smith’s podcast Straight Shooter, Carlson said he warned Trump against waging war with Iran.

He said: “It wasn’t, from my perspective, just a mistake; it was like the end of an entire moment in world history where the United States… has enough power to influence events.

“I think it’s gonna dramatically affect the standard of living in the United States and western Europe, which I care about.”

The broadcaster went on to add that he thought it is “the most disastrous decision any American president has made in my lifetime” and that “nothing comes close”.

Things escalated at the end of the month, when he called for Trump to be immediately removed from office if he was considering using nuclear weapons in his war with Iran.

Trump has not said publicly that he is considering using nuclear weapons, but in an episode of his podcast, Carlson said: “The second any president actively considers the first use of nuclear weapons, that person should be removed from office immediately, because that’s got to be the red line, destroying all of humanity with a nuclear strike.

“Why isn’t there an attempt to remove him from office, like, immediately? Anyone who would even tolerate that kind of talk from any of his subordinates or employees is by definition unfit.”

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