Former chief Republican strategist, Lincoln Project adviser, and bestselling author Stuart Stevens tells MS NOW that while Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) may be a "performative politician," she's just getting started as she eyes a political landscape without President Donald Trump in it.
Following Greene's revelatory "60 Minutes" interview Sunday in which she admits she is not MAGA, but "America First," and that her colleagues have bad mouthed Trump behind his back, Stevens says that Greene "is trying to build a lane for herself," as he expects her to run for president in 2028.
When asked if her comments on "60 Minutes," which provoked a Monday morning Truth Social rant from Trump, were strategic and intentionally trying to strike a nerve, Stevens replied, yes, saying, "she's always been a performance politician, that was her whole sort of shtick when she got elected."
"She's a good performer, she understands this. I think she is trying to build an identity that will enable her to have a path to Republican nomination for president," he adds.
"There is going to be a post-Trump world here," he notes, "and when you look at the candidates out there, there's not a lot of attractive candidates in waiting. So she's trying to build a lane for herself."
Greene announced that she will resign from Congress, with her last day being January 5, 2026, following a public falling-out with Trump over issues including the files related to deceased convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, foreign policy and health care. Trump called her a "traitor."
Stevens says while he doesn't think Greene has "this thought out ten steps beyond," adding that she's "staying in Congress until the day she can trigger her pension," he says she has her eyes on the near future.
"Yeah, this is a very ambitious woman — which I think is a positive. I don't agree with her ambitions, but she's just beginning," he says.