As former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy recently put it, Marjorie Taylor Greene is a “canary in the coal mine” for what’s happening to the Republican Party. This announcement followed her surprise resignation last Friday. Greene’s resignation followed weeks of public tension between Greene and former President Donald Trump. Political pressures in the GOP are intensifying. In addition, Trump attempted to rebut a bombshell recent story on his former advisor Steve Witkoff mentoring a Putin operative during the current peace talks over the Ukraine war.
The backdrop to Greene’s departure includes escalating frustration within the GOP and Trump’s apparent impatience with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump has commented on the complexities involved in negotiating a peace deal, stating, “He’s got to sell this to Ukraine. He’s got to sell Ukraine to Russia. That’s what a dealmaker does.”
Greene’s resignation is a shocking turn of events that has party leaders panicking, forcing McCarthy to call on Republicans to rethink their political strategies. He stated, “This is something inside Congress, they’d better wake up, because they are going to get a lot of people retiring, and they’ve got to focus.”
In the political upheaval, Witkoff not only faces a regulatory gauntlet but he’s preparing for a high-profile visit to Moscow next week. He intends to broker a peace agreement over the vicious war in Ukraine. Witkoff’s prior talks did, according to some accounts, result in substantial breakthroughs with Ukrainian leaders. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said an updated peace agreement would be “feasible.” Important implementation issues remain to be resolved.
The U.S. has released its own peace plan, which frankly seems to give away a lot to the Russian side. As negotiations unfold, Witkoff expressed optimism about the situation, saying, “Just reiterate that you congratulate the president [Trump] on this achievement… that you respect that he is a man of peace and you’re just, you’re really glad to have seen it happen.”
Just five years of these toxic, deeply felt misconceptions from their leader has created a depressing atmosphere in the GOP caucus. As linked above, the Pentagon and the FBI have already started investigations into his statements. One Democrat at the center called the inquiries a “political scare tactic,” a sign of just how nasty the political climate has gotten.
A notable moment occurred when a phone call between Trump and Putin took place shortly before Zelenskyy’s scheduled visit to the White House. Zelenskyy is already looking forward to future conversations with Trump in the next few days. At the same time, the political environment on both sides of the U.S. Russian governments remain volatile.