Marjorie Taylor Greene faces backlash over tweet demanding ‘loyalty to Trump’

‘You are clueless about what Republican voters think and feel, which is #AmericaFirst and loyalty to Trump,’ Ms Greene tweeted to Rep Adam Kinzinger

In a tweet, Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene called ‘loyalty to Trump’ one of the two core beliefs of the Republican Party (Reuters)

US Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene is facing accusations of authoritarianism after declaring “loyalty to Trump” one of the core tenets of the Republican Party.

The comment was part of a venomous tweet Ms Greene wrote to Rep Adam Kinzinger, an anti-Trump Republican congressman from Illinois.

“You aren’t fighting for the soul of the GOP,” the Georgia congresswoman wrote on Sunday. “You sold your soul & sold out the GOP [because] you are clueless about what Republican voters think and feel, which is #AmericaFirst and loyalty to Trump.”

Observers on Twitter objected to her “cult”-like fealty.

“Loyalty to a single man instead of any set of values or ideas is a big problem,” one user tweeted.

“Loyalty to Trump?” another commented. “Is this ‘Goodfellas’ or the United States government?”

“Loyalty to trump… THAT’S the problem,” another wrote to Ms Greene. “It should be to party, not person, and your inability to see the fascist direction of @GOP is where America First will become America Last.”

Ms Greene and Mr Kinzinger have been on opposite sides of a war for the future of their party. Mr Kinzinger, who voted for Donald Trump’s second impeachment, started a political action committee to support Republican candidates with “traditional conservative values” against the party’s pro-Trump insurgents.

Ms Greene, meanwhile, has championed those insurgents. She regularly pledges her loyalty to Mr Trump, and until recently promoted QAnon and other right-wing conspiracy theories on social media. When the House of Representatives voted to strip her of her committee positions as punishment for those posts, Mr Kinzinger joined the vote.

More recently, the two representatives have opposed each other in a proxy war in Texas’ 6th Congressional District.

After the district’s congressman, Ron Wright, died of Covid-19 in February, a special election was called to replace him. Mr Trump supported his widow, Susan Wright, which of course meant Ms Greene supported her as well. Mr Kinzinger, meanwhile, supported the anti-Trump Republican Michael Wood.

Ms Wright won first place in the election, and will move on to the runoff. Mr Wood placed ninth.

“Your guy got 9th @AdamKinzinger & Trump endorsed Susan Wright took 1st in #TX06,” Ms Greene taunted in her tweet.

Even amid his candidate’s defeat, however, some on Twitter gave Mr Kinzinger credit for trying.

“@RepKinzinger represents what the GOP was 20 years ago… the real Conservative party,” one user commented. “Today’s GOP? I haven’t a clue. Autocracy?”