Donald Trump and Marjorie Taylor Greene may clash regarding her threats to vacate Speaker of the House Mike Johnson.
While Greene has criticized Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, the Speaker appears to have the support of the former president.
The differing views could cause Greene to back down, experts told Newsweek.
The Georgia Republican, who is also a Trump supporter, has emerged as a staunch Johnson critic. Last month, she introduced a motion to vacate him, criticizing his $1.2 trillion spending bill to fund government agencies.
She has also criticized Johnson over plans to introduce a vote on the $95 billion aid package to Ukraine and has alleged, without providing any evidence, that he may be being "blackmailed" because his views have supposedly changed so much.
Johnson is a Trump ally and the pair have been said to be planning an event together. On Wednesday, CNN Capitol reporter Melanie Zanona said on social platform X, that Johnson was planning to hold a press conference this week with Trump at the former president's Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.
The report from CNN, which cited anonymous sources, noted that the press conference would focus on "election integrity."
If Johnson and Trump are aligned, and Greene is continuing to threaten Johnson, one of Trump or Greene will have to back down.
Newsweek contacted representatives for Trump, Greene and Johnson by email outside of normal business hours to comment on this story.
Speaking to Newsweek, Mark Shanahan, an associate professor in politics at the University of Surrey in the U.K. said Greene would likely capitulate to whatever Trump's demands are.
"Mike Johnson faces a serious threat from the right wing of the GOP in the House, but his fate rests not on the calls to oust him from Marjorie Taylor Greene, but on whether he maintains the support of Donald Trump," he said. "Taylor Greene acts on whatever Donald Trump tells her to do. In the past, she's been noisy but not dangerous, but now if Trump has decided that Johnson is not quite loyal enough, especially over funding the war in Ukraine, Taylor Greene could prove to be the former president's useful idiot in causing the kind of chaos the House really doesn't need right now in the run-up to November's election."
He continued: "If Johnson goes—and his future is genuinely in the balance—it's anyone's guess who'd put themself forward for this most poisoned of chalices. There could be further weeks of infighting with a lame-dog Speaker pro tempore. And that's the last thing Republicans need at a time when they have only the most wafer-thin of majorities."
Heath Brown, an associate professor of public policy at City University of New York, said Greene was unlikely to impact Johnson.
"With a one-seat majority in the House, I think MTG's chance of ousting Speaker Johnson as highly unlikely," he told Newsweek. "I don't think her Republican colleagues see any upside to backing her efforts on this before the November election."
Two of Greene's fellow Republicans have publicly spoken out against her.
"Right now, I'm not sure that there's a real appetite by enough people to just oust Speaker Johnson," Representative Dan Crenshaw told Fox News's Neil Cavuto. "I think some people want, you know, a little bit of fame, a little bit of attention. That's usually the kind of antics we see up here,"
Representative Bob Good told CNN: "Nobody cares what Marjorie Taylor Greene says or thinks. And she's a one-man show. She's grandstanding and she wants attention."
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Kate Plummer is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on U.S. politics and national affairs, and ... Read more
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