When Joe Biden stood in the US House of Representatives chamber for his final State of the Union address in March 2024, Marjorie Taylor Greene appeared to be one of Donald Trump's most loyal soldiers.
Sporting a crimson blazer and MAGA baseball cap, Ms Greene heckled the then-president from the stands.
Better known as MTG in online spaces, she had never shied away from offering her blunt criticisms of Democrats, nor her ardent support for Mr Trump.
But 19 months is an eternity in politics — and Ms Greene has increasingly displayed an independent streak, culminating in her calls for the Department of Justice to release its files relating to the Jeffrey Epstein investigation.
The president has been less than impressed and let the world know on Friday evening.
"I am withdrawing my support and Endorsement of 'Congresswoman' Marjorie Taylor Greene, of the Great State of Georgia," he declared on Truth Social.
The rise to MAGA royalty
With just five years in office under her belt, Ms Greene is far from a career politician.
An early adopter of the QAnon conspiracy theory, she spent much of Mr Trump's first term as president moderating a conservative political action group's Facebook page, and analysing Q posts on her own.
"Most Q people I know are very accomplished professionals," she posted to Twitter in 2018.
"It's not a movement for dummies."
But it wasn't until she began to eye a tilt at Congress that Ms Greene's future role as a Republican star began to emerge.
In 2019, she announced her intention to run for the US House of Representatives — first for Georgia's 7th congressional district, then the 6th, and later, the 14th — and promised to "stop socialism".
Ms Greene tipped almost $US1 million ($1.5 million) of her own money into her campaign, flooding social media with videos that frequently featured her wielding guns and making what her opponents considered to be threats of violence.
Facebook removed several for violating community guidelines, including on issues like inciting violence.
Those videos, along with early endorsements from the GOP's House Freedom Caucus and other MAGA leaders shot Ms Greene to a level of renown in conservative circles.
She was often described as a "female Donald Trump".
When she finished first in the Republican primary for district 14, the MAGA leader called her "a future Republican star".
The Biden years
Ms Greene was elected to the House with an almost three-quarter share of the vote in 2020, though she ran unopposed after Democratic candidate Kevin Van Ausdal withdrew a month prior.
But to her disbelief, she assumed office on January 3, 2021, without a second Trump term to look forward to.
Joe Biden had just won the presidential election in a landslide — a win she called to be decertified.
When Mr Trump's supporters stormed Capitol Hill on January 6, she blamed Democrats for "the political violence inspired by their rhetoric".
After Republicans won back a narrow majority in the House of Representatives in 2022, Ms Greene played a role in helping Republican representative Kevin McCarthy get voted in as House Speaker.
He had failed to secure a majority on the first ballot, with 19 Republican politicians opposing him.
Ms Greene took a call from Mr Trump and handed her phone to the rebels in order to get them to vote in favour of McCarthy.
Jason Shepherd, a Georgia Republican who resigned from party office over disagreements with supporters of Mr Trump, said "we never know what position Marjorie Taylor Greene is going to pop up with next".
"I don't know if she has any core convictions, except for what will help her the most," he said.
While that rogue-like behaviour drew scorn from other Republicans at times, she remained popular with Mr Trump, acting as a loyal lieutenant in his comeback campaign.
A rift emerges
Despite their years of mutual support, Mr Trump and Ms Greene's alliance did not last a year into his return to office.
Tensions seemingly first began when Ms Greene was exploring a potential campaign for senator against Georgia Democrat Jon Ossoff.
The president said he sent Ms Greene an opinion poll, which showed she "didn't have a chance".
She ultimately passed on the race, and later declined to run for Georgia governor, all while attacking a political "good ole boy" system — one where powerful men use their connections and influence to favour each other and exclude outsiders.
As 2025 draws on, Ms Greene has struck a more conciliatory tone to her previous firebrand style.
She went on the American Broadcasting Company's daytime talk show The View, considered a safe space for Democrats, to say "people with powerful voices", especially women, "need to pave a new path".
The Georgia representative has also taken opportunities to criticise Mr Trump for his foreign policy work.
On the Tucker Carlson Show last month, she hit out at the administration's support for Argentina, saying it was "a punch in the gut" at a time when Americans were angry about prices for everyday needs.
The Epstein problem
It appears the final straw for the president was Ms Greene's support of an effort to force the Department of Justice to release more documents relating to its investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.
Mr Trump has struggled to stop questions about his own links to Epstein and has described the effort as a "Democrat hoax" to smear his name, despite being led by Republican politician Thomas Massie.
In July, he said Republicans who were calling for the release of the files were "stupid", "weaklings", and "wasting their time".
For her part, Ms Greene said the release of the files would be "the right thing to do" for both Epstein's victims and the country.
"Remember Democrats had four years under Biden to release it all, but never even tried or cared," she wrote on X on Thursday.
"Now under full Republican control there were only four Republicans that signed the discharge petition for the Massie resolution to release the Epstein files."
The president has dismissed Ms Greene's criticism, telling reporters on Monday she had "lost her way".
Late Friday, he unleashed.
Mr Trump told his social media followers he no longer supported Ms Greene, saying "all I see 'Wacky' Marjorie do is COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN!"
"She has told many people that she is upset that I don't return her phone calls anymore, but with 219 Congressmen/women, 53 US Senators, 24 Cabinet Members, almost 200 Countries, and an otherwise normal life to lead, I can't take a ranting Lunatic's call every day," he wrote.
The two have been trading barbs on social media since, with Mr Trump at times field testing new nicknames for the Georgia representative, such as Marjorie "Traitor" Greene and Marjorie Taylor Brown (because "Green grass turns Brown when it begins to ROT").
Meanwhile, Ms Greene happily adopted the RINO (Republican in Name Only) nickname she has at times used to insult her own political rivals.
Without offering any evidence, the Georgia representative alleged Mr Trump had "egged on" threats to her safety made by paid trolls, adding that private security firms had warned her about her safety.
"Aggressive rhetoric attacking me has historically led to death threats and multiple convictions of men who were radicalized by the same type [of] rhetoric being directed at me right now," she wrote on X.
"This time by the President of the United States."
Trump battles Democrats and Republicans in midterms
It's common for political coalitions to fray over time in the US.
That is especially true for presidents serving their second term, when members of their party start to ponder a future without them at the helm.
Mr Trump faces a crucial political test next year when Americans go to the polls to elect a new House of Representatives.
Democrats will use that moment to try to retake control, which would empower them to block legislation and launch investigations of his administration.
He has been trying to insulate his party against a potential loss by pressuring states to redraw congressional districts to benefit Republicans, and purge politicians he believes are disloyal.
Mr Massie has already found himself to be one such target, with Mr Trump backing another person for the Republican candidacy for his seat.
Ms Greene could be next if she and the president do not reconcile, as has occasionally happened after Mr Trump falls out with allies.
ABC/AP
