President Donald Trump lost a friend and gained another this week, it seems. Trump and New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani emerged from an Oval Office meeting looking positively chummy during their joint encounter with the press. Meanwhile, the president’s falling out with longtime supporter Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) seems to have come to its culmination: the Peach State lawmaker announced she’s resigning effective January 5, 2026. Is it freaky Friday in the Swamp, or has American politics turned completely upside down?
MTG Calls It Quits
Late Friday evening, Rep. Greene posted to X a four-page statement and video announcement of her pending resignation. “I’ve always represented the common American man and woman as a member of the House of Representatives which is why I’ve always been despised in Washington DC and never fit in,” the soon-to-be former lawmaker began. She went on to talk about the “Political Industrial Complex” regardless of which party is in power.
“No matter which way the political pendulum swings, Republican or Democrat, nothing ever gets better for the common American man or woman.” Washington continues to back corporate and global interests, the debt grows, the power of the dollar declines, etc. She had several gripes about the status quo.
After four pages, she laments the impossibility of change: “It’s all so absurd and completely unserious. I refuse to be a ‘battered wife’ hoping it all goes away and gets better.”
“When the common American people finally realize and understand that the Political Industrial Complex of both parties is ripping this country apart, that not one elected leader like me is able to stop Washington’s machine from gradually destroying our country, and instead the reality is that they, common Americans, The People, possess the real power over Washington, then I’ll be here by their side to rebuild it,” she said. “Until then I’m going back to the people I love, to live life to the fullest as I always have, and look forward to the new path ahead.”
In short: Washington is a scam, and the beast just keeps growing no matter who’s in power, so what’s the point in even fighting it? It’s important to note she isn’t retiring at the end of her term – she’s leaving Congress halfway through the current one.
What Rep. Greene may or may not realize, however, is that the average “common American man and woman” do know this. Sure, there are card-carrying zealots for both parties, who believe whatever the chosen ones tell them. But the average person on the street knows Congress doesn’t really work for them.
And let’s face it, MTG ain’t no dummy. She could walk away today, but instead she chose to make her last day January 5, 2026 – when she becomes “vested” for serving at least five years. She wouldn’t be able to immediately draw her pension as a 51-year-old. Someone her age would need 20 years of service to qualify for immediate retirement. But with five years of service under her belt, she could begin her deferred retirement once she turns 62. Should she walk out today, however, she wouldn’t be vested and wouldn’t have a pension to look forward to.
Trump and Mamdani – A Match Made in New York
“They are polar opposites,” wrote Liberty Nation News Senior Political Analyst Tim Donner about Donald Trump and Zohran Mamdani. And that certainly seemed true at the time. Mamdani has called Trump a fascist while the president has floated the idea of arresting or maybe even deporting the soon-to-be mayor of the Big Apple should he interfere with immigration enforcement operations. Ideologically, it seems the self-proclaimed democratic socialist and the real estate mogul couldn’t be farther apart.
Still, the two managed to find common ground during their Oval Office meeting Friday, November 21, and appeared quite friendly in front of the press afterward. Affordability: It’s the buzzword that got Mamdani elected in New York, but it’s also what led so many New Yorkers to back Trump in the previous presidential election. To quote Jimmy McMillan, “The rent is too damn high.” It was true when he founded a political party named “Rent Is Too Damn High Party” in the Empire State back in 2005 when the average monthly rent in the Big Apple was between $750 and $850, not counting utilities or other costs of living, and it’s even truer today with the same figure standing closer to $4,000 – and the people want a different kind of change.
President Trump told reporters he and Mamdani agreed on more issues than they thought they would, especially when it came to affordability and crime. He went on to say he believes the mayor-elect could “really do something great for New York,” and that he plans to help. He even broke in on Mamdani's answer to a reporter's attempt to hem him in on calling the president a fascist. "That's okay, you can just say yes," Trump said. "Okay. That's easier. It's easier than explaining it, I don't mind."
For the two to come out of the meeting seemingly friendly and planning to work together after calling each other names like communist and fascist may seem quite the pivot. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) even went so far as to accuse Trump of trying to steal some of Mamdani’s momentum. Actually, her words were “trying to take a little of the shine that Zohran Mamdani has and see if he can, you know, rub a little on Donald Trump.”
Uncomfortable imagery aside, the most likely reason for Trump and Mamdani to work together and, if nothing else, put on a show of friendship is that they both recognize there’s nothing to be gained otherwise. The elections are over. Trump is president until 2029, and Mamdani is mayor until 2031, and no amount of name calling by either is going to change that. And they do both have an affordability problem in New York City, though they probably have very different ideas about how to fix it.
Still, from vitriol to veneration in the Big Apple and from friendship to fallout and, finally, walking away from Congress, the week closed out with a severe case of whiplash for the unsuspecting observer.
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