President Donald Trump reported his longtime ally turned bitter foe Marjorie Taylor Greene to the Secret Service after fears she leaked the location of his dinner to a group of pro-Palestinian protesters, triggering a dangerous confrontation.
Last September, Trump visited an expensive steakhouse in DC alongside Vice President JD Vance and other Cabinet members as part of an effort to show the president’s deployment of National Guard troops to the Capital had made the city safer.
Trump, was confronted by a herd of Code Pink protesters, an anti-war and pro-Palestine activist group that is friendly with Greene. The protesters stood feet from Trump across a table and chanted: ‘Free DC! Free Palestine! Trump is the Hitler of our time!’
The incident sparked widespread concern in the White House just one year after he was nearly assassinated in Butler, Pennsylvania.
White House aides told Axios that they believe the restaurant confrontation was ‘a point of no return’ in Trump’s relationship with Greene as many believed she tipped off the protesters.
Greene responded to the allegations by claiming that any suggestion that she leaked Trump’s dinner reservation was ‘an absolute lie, a dangerous lie. I would never do that.’ She added that she recommended the restaurant to the president but didn’t know when he would go there.
Officials, however, say that after Greene recommended the restaurant to Trump, she repeatedly called WHite House staffers the day of the dinner to confirm Trump was going. Trump heard about Greene’s calls and informed her shortly before leaving the White House that he planned on attending the steakhouse.
It is unclear whether the Secret Service opened up an official investigation into Greene. Greene refused to confirm whether she was contacted by the Secret Service over the incident.
Last September, liberal DC protesters confronted Donald Trump at a restaurant in a shocking event that spurred a sitdown with Secret Service. Trump believes that Greene leaked his location to the group
Greene denied leaking the president’s location but did not confirm whether Secret Service had reached out to her
Trump reportedly told Greene he was attending Joe’s Steakhouse minutes before he was confronted by liberal protesters in DC
Greene said, ‘The story you should be writing is why didn’t the Secret Service sweep the restaurant.’
Code Pink spokesperson Melissa Garriga dismissed the claim that Greene warned the group about Trump’s dinner plans.
‘That absolutely did not happen, to the point it is comical,’ Garriga said.
White House officials did not provide direct evidence that Greene leaked Trump’s location to the liberal protest group but gave two reasons for their suspicions.
White House officials claim that after Trump alerted Greene about his plans to attend the restaurant – claim that Greene denies – she did not show up when the president arrived.
Moreover, White House aides accused Greene of maintaining a friendly relationship with Code Pink co-founder and leader Medea Benjamin.
Greene and the liberal protest organization are united in their opposition to US support for Israel.
The group praised Greene last June for opposing Trump’s bombing of nuclear facilities in Iran.
The group’s leader, Benjamin, visited Greene in November as a show of support shortly after Greene announced she would resign from Congress.
Trump attended the dinner with his top officials and aides
‘I have enjoyed a friendship with Medea for a few years now, even though politics says that’s not allowed,’ Greene said.
Trump’s relationship with Greene, meanwhile, began to deteriorate at the start of his second term after the president warned Greene that she’d lose the Georgia Senate race to a Democrat.
After Trump sent Greene polling indicating that she’d lose a general election Senate race, she began to publicly criticize the president by claiming he had abandoned his ‘America First’ principles.
