Marjorie Taylor Greene calls for US to stop funding Israel’s ‘genocide’ of Gaza in upcoming spending cycle

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) called on House Republicans to stop funding Israel ahead of the September government funding deadline, arguing the United States is enabling the Jewish state to wage a “genocide” in Gaza.

Greene is the first congressional Republican to categorize the conflict in Gaza as a “genocide,” a common moniker used by Democrats since Israel began responding with full force to the Hamas terrorist attacks in October 2023.

A firebrand conservative, Greene said in a lengthy post to X on Thursday that people are “beyond fed up” with funding foreign wars while Americans are struggling to survive even though they work everyday.”

“Many of us, even though we are Christians, no longer want to fund and fight nuclear armed secular Israel’s wars especially when it leads to starving children and killing innocent people including Christians,” Greene wrote. “Of course we are against radical Islamic terrorism, but we are also against genocide.”

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Her post comes a few days after she criticized Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) for saying Gazans should “starve away,” as the conflict between Israel and Hamas has led to thousands of civilian Palestinians.

“It’s the most truthful and easiest thing to say that Oct 7th in Israel was horrific and all hostages must be returned,” Greene said Tuesday, “but so is the genocide, humanitarian crisis, and starvation happening in Gaza.”

On Thursday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and special envoy Steve Witkoff will travel to the Gaza Strip to inspect the food distribution centers operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a joint venture between the U.S. and Israel.

The trip comes as pressure mounts for peace talks between Hamas and Israel over reports of insufficient humanitarian aid entering Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said there is “no starvation” in the strip, but numerous reports and images have contradicted that.

President Donald Trump responded to Greene’s comment on Thursday, saying, “It’s terrible what’s occurring there.”

“Yeah. It’s a terrible thing,” Trump said. “People are very hungry. You know, the U.S. gave $60 million for food. And it’s a shame because I don’t see the results of it. Nobody said thank you.”

Greene is one of several GOP lawmakers who have taken an “America First” approach to foreign policy. She said she wants to see her party step back from funneling aid to Israel and focus attention on domestic matters instead.

“When you have worked your entire life, and all your elected federal officials have recklessly spent and sent your hard earned money to every foreign country and every foreign war and NGO to the point we are almost $40 TRILLION in debt and inflation has caused life to be unaffordable, you are pissed off,” Greene wrote.

“None of this is antisemitic and I, along with millions of Americans, refuse that manipulative label,” she added. “It’s the consequences of decades of America LAST policies, nonstop foreign intervention, and the American people clearly seeing the truth and suffering.”

This is a surprising shift for Greene, who filed a censure resolution against Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) over “antisemitic activity, sympathizing with terrorist organizations and leading an insurrection at the United States Capitol Complex” in 2023. Greene, along with many of her Republican colleagues, has criticized members of the progressive “Squad” for calling the war in Gaza a “genocide” and accused them of being antisemitic for not standing with Israel, a U.S. ally.

Omer Bartov, a Holocaust and genocide studies scholar, told the Washington Examiner that Greene’s comments show people in the MAGA movement “who have never wanted … these foreign wars and foreign involvement.”

“They think that America got involved in all kinds of forever wars,” Bartov said. “And I think some of them, at least from some of what I read, also figure this is sort of Jewish money and Israeli pull on American politics. So, sort of not very well disguised anti-semitic thinking, generally.”

“You can say it’s because American soldiers are dying for somebody else,” Bartov added. “Or you could say American money, a huge amount of it, by the way, streaming to Israel to kill Palestinians. So you can also use moral arguments, and you can use political arguments to say, well, it looks like Israel has an extraordinary impact on American politics.”

However, Greene has also been criticized for propagating antisemitic conspiracy theories in the past. She suggested California wildfires were started by “Jewish space lasers” and equated COVID-19 restrictions to the Holocaust, comparing mask mandates to Jewish people having to wear the Star of David. She later apologized for the remarks.

Looming at the end of September is a government shutdown if Congress cannot pass all 12 appropriations bills by 11:59 p.m. on Sept. 30. That task has proven difficult, as Republicans have been unable to pass all of the bills in recent fiscal years. Only five bills were passed in fiscal 2025. In fiscal 2024, six bills were passed individually, and the remaining six were combined into the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2024.

So far, House Republicans have only passed two appropriations bills for fiscal 2026: Military Construction/Veterans Affairs in June and Defense in July.

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Greene said in her post that she wants to push for world peace, but also wants the U.S. to prioritize its companies, jobs, and lands first.

“September 30th brings another annual government funding deadline,” Greene wrote. “I sincerely hope Republicans, out on August recess right now, will return in September with a renewed focus to stop funding foreign wars and stop waging the fiscal war against my children and their entire generation.”

Mabinty Quarshie contributed to this report.