Why controversial Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene could be Donald Trump’s ‘heir’

There are plenty of rumours about which of Donald Trump’s children will follow his path. But a divisive Republican could be first in line.

Long before Donald Trump’s stunning election loss, there was frenzied speculation over which of his five children might one day fill his shoes.

During his administration, all signs pointed to Ivanka, his rumoured favourite child.

The 74-year-old said his eldest daughter would be “hard to beat” if she ever chose to run for president, often remarking that the apple didn’t fall very far from the tree.

But in the months since Mr Trump’s election defeat, the deadly January 6 Capitol insurrection and his acquittal in his historic second impeachment trial, there’s a new blonde in the self-described billionaire’s life who is well on her way to dethroning Ivanka – and becoming his heir apparent.

Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene is fast becoming a politician in Mr Trump’s own image, which conservative Robert A George described in a new Bloomberg op-ed as “a new breed of politician (who) is loyal not to party but to their own personal ambition”.

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US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene is shaping up to be Donald Trump’s “true heir”. Picture: Alex Edelman/AFP

After the QAnon-supporting conservative businesswoman was stripped of her committee assignments in response to a trail of “vile” rhetoric on her social media, much like Mr Trump, “she was boasting in person and on Twitter about how the sanction just means she will have more free time”.

“Just as dangerous, however, is that she doesn’t seem to care too much what her party thinks of her.”

While “once upon a time”, losing a committee assignment would have been the end of a congressional career, the rules no longer apply. Ms Greene, George writes, “is channelling her favourite Obi-Wan Kenobi persona: ‘If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine’.”

“In the 48 hours leading up to her floor vote, Greene racked up $US325,000 in contributions. Indeed, she has been (and presumably still is) actively fundraising off the firestorm she created,” he said.

“Sound familiar? It should: It’s straight out of the Donald Trump playbook.”

In 2016, he adds, Mr Trump “up-ended the Republican Party nominating process, using the power of his celebrity to go around gatekeepers at the national and state levels”.

Four years later, “his control of the party was so absolute that none dared cross him – not members of his party committees, not elected officials”.

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Ms Greene was stripped of her committee assignments in response to a trail of “vile” rhetoric on her social media. Picture: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP

Much like the former president, Ms Greene has an affinity for using Twitter as her personal soap box. Picture: Mandel Ngan/AFP

SO WHO IS MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE?

The 46-year-old Georgian, who the former president once deemed a “future Republican star”, “is hateful in both senses of the word”,Vanity Fair’sChris Smith wrote yesterday.

“Full of hate – willing to viciously harass a teen survivor of the Parkland mass shooting, for just one example – and fully hateable, in her embrace of Islamophobic, racist, and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories”.

But Ms Greene’s greatest claim to fame is her vocal support of the far-right conspiracy theory QAnon.

Believing that Mr Trump was fighting against “deep state” operators who worship Satan and run child sex-trafficking rings, in a 2017 YouTube video, she claimed that “Q is a patriot”.

“He is someone that very much loves his country, and he’s on the same page as us, and he is very pro-Trump,” she added in the now private clip.

“I’m very excited … that now there’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take this global cabal of Satan-worshipping paedophiles out, and I think we have the president to do it.”

It’s not just QAnon: Ms Greene touted “loony lies and conspiracy theories” – in the words of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell – long before she was elected in November.

Some of those outlandish beliefs include that a Jewish space laser started California’s wildfires, and that Speaker Nancy Pelosi should be executed for treason, which Mr Smith writes are “emblematic of the Republican slide into the loony fringes”.

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RT if you still have @realDonaldTrump’s back!

— Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) January 7, 2021

I’m the “greatest threat” to the Democrat mob and the activist media.

They hate me because I represent your America First views.

They think Trump is gone, so they attack you and me.

He’s not gone. And we won’t back down and we will never give up!

We REFUSE to be canceled! pic.twitter.com/m0py2NKd57

— Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) February 2, 2021

But while Ms Greene’s extreme claims certainly alienate many, Democratic strategist Neal Kwatra warned her social media presence could literally trump any feelings of revulsion toward her.

“This is an attention economy, where your Twitter handle is way more important and your leverage and capital are inextricably linked to your ability to have people pay attention to you. It is the Trump phenomenon writ large,” Mr Kwatra told Vanity Fair.

And while Ms Greene currently lacks Mr Trump’s celebrity status, she could be on the way there.

“How do Republicans generate that sort of (nationalist) energy without Trump on the ballot? … I think Marjorie Taylor Greene is the closest thing they’ve got right now,” Obama strategist Cornell Belcher claimed.