Once a die-hard MAGA foot soldier, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is continuing to break with her party, now attacking Republicans and specifically Speaker Mike Johnson over the high cost of living and keeping the House in recess during the federal government shutdown.

“My big warning is, we have to take this very seriously, because if Republicans are responsible for doing nothing about this and regular, innocent Americans’ health insurance premiums double, they’re not gonna be able to pay their rent,” the Georgia Republican lawmaker said.

Americans, Greene noted, are “already getting crushed with the cost of living expenses that the Biden administration created, but have not come back down.”

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“Food prices have gone up this year,” she said, in direct contradiction to President Donald Trump’s repeated statements to the contrary. As recently as Tuesday the president claimed, “groceries are down, it’s all down.”

“Even the Department of Agriculture,” Greene continued, “put out a report on that in August, and there’s many other problems — even potentially that we could see a slowdown in the economy next year, and I pray to God, not a recession.”

“So this is extremely serious,” she stressed. “Everyone should be talking about it, and here’s where I’m upset: Republicans are doing nothing.”

“The House is not in session, which I think is inexcusable. Mike Johnson should be calling us back because we should be working.”

Last week, Greene also criticized the Speaker over his refusal to bring the House back into session.

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“I don’t think that it’s believable to tell the American people that while we control the White House, the House, and the Senate, that we can’t return to work in Washington, D.C., because Chuck Schumer and six other Democrats won’t vote to open the government,” Greene said.

“I just, I know people,” she continued. “They don’t believe that.”

House Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Wednesday echoed Greene’s lament: “House Republicans need to get back to work,” he said in a press conference.

The Bulwark on Tuesday had asked, “When even Marjorie Taylor Greene is talking about living in reality, maybe the ground is finally shifting?”

MTG: “Food prices have gone up this year and there’s many other problems even potentially we could see a slow down in the economy next year. This is extremely serious. Everyone should be talking about it. Here’s what I’m upset— Republicans are doing nothing.” pic.twitter.com/dDtLfJNH8x

— Ron Smith (@Ronxyz00) October 15, 2025

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The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is reportedly this year’s biggest political ad spender, pouring tens of millions into spots that praise President Donald Trump and tell undocumented immigrants to leave the country.

Axios reported that while Homeland Security “disputes that its ads are political,” it has “spent at least $51 million this year on ads thanking President Trump for securing the border, according to AdImpact.”

Fox News Channel is the largest host of the ads, airing about $9 million worth of them so far.

The DHS ads are part of a larger $200 million contract pushing “self-deportation,” and promoting “Trump’s mass deportation agenda in a series of direct-to-camera videos starring the face of the policy, Secretary Kristi Noem.”

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Three of the ads say, “Thank you, President Donald J. Trump for securing our border and putting America first.”

In one, titled, “WARNING,” Secretary Noem says, “President Trump has a clear message for those that are in our country illegally. Leave now. If you don’t, we will find you and we will deport you. You will never return.”

“For too long, weak politicians left our borders wide open,” Noem continued, appearing to blame Democrats without mentioning any party. “They flooded our communities with drugs. Human trafficking and violent criminals. They put American lives at risk.”

“If you leave now, you may have an opportunity to return, and enjoy our freedom, and live the American dream,” Noem said. “But understand this. Under President Trump, America’s borders are closed to law breakers. Follow the law, and you’ll find opportunity. Break it, and you’ll find consequences.”

Axios noted that “‘President Trump’ is the most mentioned phrase across all the ads.”

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The two companies that created the ads did so by “bypassing the usual bidding process. DHS cited a[n] ‘unusual and compelling urgency’ to quickly award the contract.”

Separately, Secretary Noem is under fire for a DHS video in which she specifically blames Democrats for the federal government shutdown and its impacts on the TSA. Some airports across the country have refused to play the video, the Associated Press reported.

Critics blasted the spending.

“Using your tax dollars for political propaganda” wrote U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-DE).

“Your tax dollars and mine are being used to thank President Trump. That’s right, the biggest political ad spender of 2025 is DHS using your money,” noted The Bulwark’s Sarah Longwell.

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Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s controversial new media policy — and the claims behind it — may backfire, experts are warning.

Hegseth’s new policy was rejected by nearly every major credentialed news organization — including his former employer, Fox News — some of which said it infringes on their First Amendment rights.

“Press freedom groups decried the Pentagon’s new media restrictions, arguing they appear ‘designed to stifle a free press and potentially expose us to prosecution for simply doing our jobs,’ per the Pentagon Press Association,” Axios reported.

Former Trump National Security Advisor John Bolton noted that the Defense Chief’s “17 pages of new rules for media in the Pentagon are a mistake and upend over 80 years of American norms. The wide range of outlets refusing these rules – from the Washington Post to Newsmax and The Hill – show how indefensible these new rules are.”

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“It doesn’t seem like the whole story is being told to our viewers here,” declared Fox News senior strategic analyst General Jack Keane (Ret.). The Pentagon, he said, wants to “spoon-feed information to the journalists, and that will be their story. That’s not journalism. Journalism is going out and finding the story and getting all the facts that support it.”

Journalist Barbara Starr, a former CNN Pentagon reporter for two decades, told anchor Kaitlan Collins that she thinks Hegseth is “about to potentially run into a buzz saw of trouble, because reporters are going to continue to report whether they’re inside the building or not.”

Wednesday marks the first full day of Hegseth’s new policy, which almost all Pentagon reporters refused to sign. By doing so, they were forced to hand in their press passes.

Asked if what he was telling President Donald Trump was true — that reporters had unfettered access to almost everywhere in the Pentagon, including classified areas, Starr emphatically responded, “No, absolutely not. And he knows it, and he should be telling the president the truth.”

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“What Hegseth is about to lose,” by reporters not being in the building, “I don’t think he even comprehends.”

“He’s about to lose the ability to have communication with millions of Americans who read blogs, read newspapers, tune into TV to get military news, to find out what’s going on, to find out how their tax money’s being spent, what the troops are up to, how military families are doing, how women and minorities are doing in the military,” Starr explained. “He’s going to be have a tough time really communicating.”

She said that “behind the scenes, the big question that’s being whispered about more and more is, ‘What is Hegseth afraid of?’ If he’s afraid of leaks, go after those he believes are leaking. If he’s afraid of not showing the president how tough he is, well, he probably needs to start by telling the truth about what’s really going on with the media and the Pentagon and going from there.”

On Wednesday, The Washington Post’s military affairs reporter Dan Lamothe reported that “Hegseth’s bid to impose sweeping restrictions on journalists at the Pentagon was orchestrated with advice of his legal fixer, Tim Parlatore.”

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote that it is “utterly disingenuous when Hegseth says that the new Pentagon crackdown is about protecting classified information. It’s about protecting Hegseth.”

“Remember that it was Hegseth himself who sent advance information about a Yemen bombing to his wife, brother and personal lawyer in a Signal chat,” he noted. “That’s just the kind of scandal, involving mishandling of classified information, that reporters should be uncovering and reporting on. But the new Pentagon policy would bar them from inquiring about it. So we have someone with a record of mishandling secret information taking steps to protect himself politically and saying that it’s to protect national secrets? Really?! I’m rolling my eyes.”

Barbara Starr, longtime CNN correspondent and stalwart of the Pentagon press corps, on Secretary Hegseth’s changes to press policy: “I think he’s about to potentially run into a buzz saw of trouble, because reporters are going to continue to report whether they’re inside the… pic.twitter.com/uVzqE9CpFX

— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) October 15, 2025

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