Marjorie Taylor Greene moves to oust US speaker for backing ‘every single foreign war’

Marjorie Taylor Greene, a pro-Trump Republican, has moved to oust the speaker of the US House of Representatives, claiming he backed “every single foreign war”.

In a tirade against Mike Johnson and the rest of her party she said she would force a vote on his position next week after he paved the way for a military aid package for Ukraine last month.

“Nobody in this town gives a damn about Americans,” she told a press conference in Washington, batting away the attempts of her fellow representatives to drop the issue.

Her effort seems destined for failure after a number of Republicans – who hold a tiny majority in the House – and Democrats signalled they would back Mr Johnson.

Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, has also previously lent his backing to the speaker.

Ms Taylor Green’s move leaves her potentially isolated and risks splitting the pro-Trump wing of the party, although she insisted she still backed the former US president.

Ms Taylor Greene said she had attempted to be “patient” with Mr Johnson for the sake of her party, but was tipped over the edge when he allowed funding for Ukraine to come to the House floor last month.

Congress later passed the foreign aid bill, which provides $61 billion (£49 billion) to defend against Vladimir Putin’s invasion, with bipartisan support.

“That’s when Johnson fully joined the disgusting business model of Washington DC to fund forever wars,” Ms Taylor Greene said, claiming the speaker had become part of an establishment “uni-party”.

“The uni-party is all about funding every single foreign war. They think this is the business model that needs to be done,” she added.

“Americans do not want to spend their hard-earned tax dollars to fund the murder and killing in foreign countries.

“They’re fed up with it, and they’re screaming it as loud as they possibly can. Our economy should not be built on the blood of wars in foreign countries.”

In a brief statement, Mr Johnson said the Georgia congresswoman’s move was “wrong for the Republican Conference, wrong for the institution, and wrong for the country”.

Republicans urge her to drop issue

Republicans had attempted to dissuade Ms Taylor Greene from holding a vote on the speaker’s future – something she had been threatening to do for months.

Two Republicans have previously signalled they support the move. One of them, Thomas Massie, spoke alongside Ms Taylor Greene on Wednesday.

Michael Whatley, the new chairman of the Republican National Committee, urged her not to plunge the party into fresh turmoil earlier this week.

“He said, one, this is not helpful, and two, we want to expand and grow the majority in the House,” said a person familiar with their meeting, according to Politico.

“He was clear that any disruption to the conference on these efforts - including filing this [motion to vacate], does not help the case for party unity.”

The following day she poured scorn on efforts by Republicans to placate her, accusing her own party of funding foreign wars while ignoring the fentanyl drug crisis, which she labelled a “war on America”.

“Nobody wants to rock the boat in Washington DC. Oh, no. That would be uncomfortable, Marjorie. We don’t want to face the issue,” she said.

“Let’s just wait and get through the election, Marjorie. Let’s just assume president Trump is going to win and we’ll fix it next Congress Marjorie.”

It comes six months after a group of Republicans rebelled against then-speaker Kevin McCarthy, after he struck a deal to avoid a government shutdown.

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