THE GREENE TEA?

MAGA fanatic Marjorie Taylor Greene is suddenly picking fights with her fellow Republicans. What the hell is going on?

• Chances are you know Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) for her bizarre, offensive, rage-inducing politics. This is the woman who brought us the infamously bonkers “Jewish space lasers” conspiracy theory, promoted baseless claims that school shootings and the 9/11 attacks were staged (before later recanting), and repeatedly indicated support for executing Democrats before she was elected to office. She’s known for her screaming matches with lawmakers, and once called another sitting congresswoman “a nasty little bitch.” But this former CrossFit instructor-turned-MAGA firebreather appears to be undergoing a head-scratching metamorphosis.

• Suddenly, she’s pushing back against her fellow Republicans. From healthcare to foreign policy and the Epstein files, MTG is staking out positions that more closely align with the Democrats… and no one really knows why.

• Earlier this week, Greene suddenly came out swinging against Republicans’ stance on the government shutdown. The GOP shouldn’t let Obamacare subsidies expire at the end of the year, she angrily tweeted… falling squarely in line with talking points from the Democrats, who are refusing to reopen the government unless Republicans extend subsidies.

• “Not a single Republican in leadership talked to us about this or has given us a plan to help Americans deal with their health insurance premiums DOUBLING!!!” she added, seemingly taking a shot at President Donald Trump. “No I’m not towing the party line on this, or playing loyalty games … I’m AMERICA ONLY!!!”

• Democrats seem baffled, but they welcome her support. “It’s the first time I’ve ever agreed with her, but she’s right on this issue,” Senator Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a private call today, attended by What A Day. Schumer and other top Dems insist other Republicans are privately worried about the impact of letting the subsidies lapse, but won’t say so for fear of crossing Trump.

Greene’s rebellion on the shutdown is just her latest surprise attack on the GOP.

• Greene has criticized the U.S. strikes on Iran, described the Israeli attacks on Palestinians as a “genocide,” and endorsed an effort to force a vote that would require the Department of Justice to release files on deceased child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

• “I’m not some sort of blind slave to the president, and I don’t think anyone should be,” Greene told NBC News. “I serve in Congress. We’re a separate branch of the government, and I’m not elected by the president.”

• So… WTF is up with MTG? Inside the halls of Capitol Hill, staffers are asking themselves the same thing: “Marjorie, I feel, is striking a lot of people strangely,” one Democratic House aide told What A Day. “Maybe she’s thinking past the admin … opposing stuff that the base is disagreeing with Trump on. Maybe she’s reading the tea leaves better than we think.”

• Another Democratic Senate aide put it this way: “I disagree with MTG on basically everything, but on this, it’s clear she’s reading the room. She knows people in her district are about to get slammed with insane prices for health insurance and is trying to distance herself from it. But thing is, this is on her too — she’s getting exactly what she voted for.”

MTG’s mind works in mysterious ways. Is she a savvy political operator? Or a far-right buffoon, saying whatever pops into her head? Maybe one day we’ll know…

WHAT ELSE?

Donald Trump said Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson “should be in jail” for allegedly failing to protect ICE officers. The threat comes as Texas National Guard troops arrive in the city, escalating tensions with local officials. I think Trump is mad that Pritzker described him as a “man who’s suffering dementia.” But he’s not doing a great job of disproving the point, is he?

California authorities arrested a 29-year-old man in connection with the deadly Palisades fire, which killed a dozen people and burned more than 23,000 acres in January. According to prosecutors: Uber driver Jonathan Rinderknecht dropped off a passenger the day the fires began. He parked, walked up a trail, then used his phone to take videos of a nearby hilltop area and listened to a French rap song “whose music video included things being lit on fire,” they added. Months prior, he also “generated an image using ChatGPT that showed “a burning forest and a crowd fleeing from it.”

Former FBI Director James Comey pleaded not guilty to charges of obstructuring a congressional hearing and false statements. (Those charges appear especially hypocritical in light of Attorney General Pam Bondi’s disastrous hearing yesterday.) His trial is set to begin in January.

Have you ever had a really terrible job interview? Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) did last night, as part of her application (er, campaign) to become California’s governor… and she’s catching heat for it. “I don’t want to have an unhappy experience with you. I don’t want this all on camera,” she told a CBS News reporter, threatening to leave the interview after the journalist asked follow-up questions. Not a good look when you’re, um, running for governor!

Farmers are worried about their crop sales this year after China stopped purchasing American soybeans months ago, in retaliation for Trump’s high tariffs. There “might be a bloodbath” in the market if the Trump administration can’t strike a trade deal with China soon, one farmer warned. Wondering if this is what rural America had in mind when it helped vote Trump into office? I’m guessing not.

More than 40 people in the Trump administration have worked for fossil fuel companies, according to a report from a consumer advocacy and ethics group. Trump’s disastrous climate change policies suddenly make a lot more sense!

Case in point: The White House is trying to bully the European Union into dropping climate demands for U.S. companies, which could threaten the recently-agreed U.S.-EU trade deal. The climate demand “imposes significant economic and regulatory burdens on U.S. companies,” Trump officials wrote in a memo. So… the companies you fellas used to work for?

Democratic voting groups are worried that Republicans could be allowed to draw 19 more House seats, ahead of an upcoming Supreme Court ruling. If the court guts part of the Voting Rights Act, it would “clear the path for a one-party system where power serves the powerful and silences the people,” Black Voters Matter Fund co-founder LaTosha Brown told Politico.

Light at the End of the Email…

Some 900 hikers were rescued from Mount Everest after being trapped on the mountain by a massive snowstorm over the weekend.

Thirty of legendary painter Bob Ross’s paintings are being auctioned off next month to help keep public television stations open amid the Trump administration’s deep cuts. It shouldn’t have to come to this, but I’d bet that Bob would’ve done anything to save these beloved networks.

A Maine high school teacher is offering students in detention the chance to go hiking instead of waiting out the punishment in a classroom. The kids are loving it: “People seem really different in a good way at the end,” the teacher said. “Kids have even expressed it to me. They’ve said, like, ‘That was really awesome, thank you.’ … Even if they’re not as vocal about it, I can tell that they’re in a better place.”

Dolly Parton confirmed that she is, in fact, alive. “Everybody thinks that I’m sicker than I am. Do I look sick to you?!” Parton said in a video, appearing very healthy. “I’m not ready to die yet!” The scare came after her sister posted on Facebook, asking for prayers for the country star. She apologized for the incident: “It was nothing more than a little sister asking for prayers for her big sister.”