A barbed social media exchange between Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Mike Lawler of New York put acrimonious MAGA infighting on display, as Republicans try to pass a bill chock-full of Donald Trump’s right-wing priorities.
It began with Greene bashing Lawler on X on Wednesday for pushing to include a raise in the state and local tax (SALT) deduction into the House GOP’s sweeping budget package. The SALT deduction allows taxpayers to deduct state and local taxes on their federal income tax returns, which can be especially beneficial for people in relatively high-tax states such as California and New York.
Lawler and several other blue-state Republicans want to greatly increase the cap on SALT deductions from $10,000 (which was put in place under the first Trump administration in 2017) to $30,000, arguing the cap should be much higher or eliminated altogether.
But as the Trump administration looks for ways to offset a massive tax cut for the wealthy, some Republicans say the tax cuts Lawler and Co. are demanding aren’t feasible.
So there’s a lot of salt — and a good amount of shade — being thrown throughout the Republican caucus as party infighting grows amid pressure to pass the legislation Trump wants, but in a way that could shield some vulnerable members from voter backlash.
“Now Mike Lawler is a NO on Trump’s big beautiful bill because he won’t accept a SALT cap increase from $10K to $30K per year,” Greene wrote on X, which ended with her questioning Lawler’s Republican bona fides.
“What’s the point in Republicans fighting to protect and keep re-electing ‘Republicans’ if they constantly undermine the agenda America voted for?” she asked.
Lawler replied to her post less than an hour later on X. “Shockingly the ‘Jewish Space Laser’ lady once again doesn’t have a clue what she is talking about,” he wrote, referring to an antisemitic conspiracy theory once floated by Greene.
Lawler added: “By the way, the reason you enjoy a gavel is because Republicans like me have won our seats. Good luck being in the Majority if we don’t.”
What followed was a fairly juvenile dispute over who was truly responsible for delivering Republicans’ razor-thin majority in the House, with Greene claiming that Trump — not Lawler — was solely responsible, and Lawler accusing Greene of not knowing how to do simple math.
The spat highlights divisions throughout the GOP caucus, with some wanting the party to move full-speed ahead with an agenda pairing cuts to social programs like Medicaid with tax cuts concentrated among the wealthy, no matter how unpopular this may be to many Americans. Meanwhile, some Republicans like Lawler are urging the party to moderate things a bit and make some concessions that could give the party, at least, a fighting chance to compete in liberal-leaning districts.
Greene seems to suggest Lawler’s perspective should mirror how some Democrats viewed support for passage of the Affordable Care Act during Barack Obama’s presidency: a difficult vote for some that is worth casting in order to enact right-wing priorities.
But Lawler and other vulnerable House Republicans don’t seem so sure about that.
