On Friday, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene from Georgia announced her resignation from Congress, expressing her unwillingness to remain in a situation she likened to being a “battered wife.” This decision follows a public dispute with former President Trump, who withdrew his endorsement and labeled her a “traitor.”

This announcement comes a week after Trump revoked his support for Greene, highlighting the growing tension between the two over the Epstein files, which ultimately led to their falling out.

In a detailed statement, Greene explained her decision, saying, “I hold too much self-respect and dignity and cherish my family deeply. I do not wish my beloved district to suffer through a harmful primary against me, initiated by the President we all supported. I would not want to win my election only for the Republicans to likely falter in the midterms.” She added, “Moreover, I refuse to be the one defending a President against impeachment after he aggressively spent millions to undermine me.”

Greene further emphasized her stance by stating, “I refuse to be a ‘battered wife’ hoping the situation will improve.”

She announced that her final day in Congress will be January 5, 2026.

Greene talked about her fallout with Trump in a lengthy statement announcing her decision, noting her fierce loyalty to the president early in her career that helped make her a national political star.

“I will never forget the day I had to leave my mother’s side as my father had brain surgery to remove cancerous tumors in order to fly to Washington DC to defend President Trump and vote NO against the Democrat’s second impeachment in 2021,” Greene said. “My poor father and my poor mother, it was way too much.”

“Loyalty should be a two way street,” she said.

Over the last several months, Greene sharply departed from the president on issues from foreign policy, to Republicans’ stance on health care, to — most recently and notably —helping to force a vote to release files related to late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The Georgia Republican was one of four GOP members to sign a discharge petition to force a vote on the bill, despite intense objections from Trump, who called the Epstein issue a “hoax.” Trump later reverted to endorse the bill, and signed it into law this week.

Greene blamed Trump’s scorn for her on the Epstein files issue.

“Standing up for American women who were raped at 14, trafficked by and used by rich and powerful men, should not result in me being called a traitor and threatened by the President of the United States, whom I fought for,” Greene said.

She was also the first congressional Republican to refer to Israel’s campaign in Gaza as a “genocide.” She went against GOP leaders’ shutdown messaging by expressing alarm at the expiring ObamaCare tax credits that could double insurance premiums for millions of Americans. And she issued a surprising critique of the Trump administration’s mass deportations.

But Greene’s split from the president she had once adamantly supported started months earlier, after Trump discouraged Greene earlier this year from running for statewide office in Georgia, as Trump said in his social media post un-endorsing her last week. Trump’s political team had conducted a poll that showed Greene losing by double digits to Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.).

Greene, however, denied that, telling CNN’s Dana Bash that she never spoke with the president about running for Senate or for Georgia governor.

Greene said that while Trump’s comments were “hurtful,” her life is “filled with joy” — asserting she “never valued power, titles, or attention in spite of all the wrong assumptions about me.”

Greene also complained that her bills to codify many of Trump’s executive actions, such as to make English the official language of the U.S. and eliminate H-1B visas, “just sit collecting dust.”

“When the common American people finally realize and understand that the Political Industrial Complex of both parties is ripping this country apart, that not one elected leader like me is able to stop Washington’s machine from gradually destroying our country, and instead the reality is that they, common Americans, The People, possess the real power over Washington, then I’ll be here by their side to rebuild it,” Greene said.

“Until then I’m going back to the people I love, to live life to the fullest as I always have, and look forward to a new path ahead,” Greene said.

Updated at 9:25 p.m. EST