President Donald Trump ended the year at odds with several of his former allies, as political rifts turned them into vocal opponents.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) began the year as a staunch supporter of Trump, but ended the year, having left Congress and politics in general, at odds with Trump.
Greene said Trump was initially her motivation for getting into politics, dating back to 2015. She began her political activity on Trump’s behalf when she voted for him in 2016 and won her first election in 2020, taking office days before the Jan. 6 Capitol riots. Greene later defended the Jan. 6 protesters, and Trump ultimately pardoned all of them.
In November, Greene announced she would resign from Congress at the beginning of 2026 after serving three terms. Her announcement came shortly after she publicly feuded with Trump over healthcare costs and the Epstein files.
“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, D.C., and never fit in,” Greene said in her resignation announcement.
Greene stood by her voting record, which she reported to be 98% compatible with the president.
Capitol Police has received 773 death threat reports from Greene’s office since she joined Congress in 2021. According to Greene, “all of the death threats came from the ‘left’ until I stood with the Epstein Survivors.”
“I sent these assassination threats on my son to President Trump in which he responded with harsh accusatory replies and zero sympathy. I also sent these threats to Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Deputy Chief James Blair and received no response, nothing,” she wrote on X earlier in December.
“This is why I’ve always been despised in Washington, D.C., and never fit in,” Greene added in her resignation announcement.
Republicans in the House will be down to a smaller 218-seat majority once Greene departs the lower chamber in January.
Mike Pence
Former Vice President Mike Pence publicly criticized his former running mate during the first year of Trump’s second term.
Despite his campaign to compete against Trump for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, Pence approved of some of Trump’s actions in 2025.
For example, he lauded Trump for the “decisive action” to strike Iran’s Fordow fuel enrichment plant, as well as the Natanz and Isfahan nuclear facilities in June. According to Pence, it is a “long-standing policy” to keep Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
Pence diminished Trump’s influence on the Republican Party in an interview with CNN host Kate Bolduan on CNN’s News Central in July. Bolduan asked Pence if he thought the “MAGA element” of the Republican Party would die once Trump leaves office.
“Well, I think President Trump, as presidents should, has changed aspects of the agenda of the Republican Party, but I don‘t think he‘s changed the Republican Party,” Pence said.
When it came to Trump’s pick of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Pence called for Kennedy’s firing. Pence has also called for Trump to use a “hammer” when negotiating with Russian President Vladimir Putin for peace between Russia and Ukraine.
John Bolton
John Bolton, Trump’s national security adviser during his first term in office, downplayed the president’s influence in this year’s international deals.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he nominated Trump to the Nobel Prize Committee amid meetings with Trump at the White House in July. Netanyahu was the second foreign dignitary to nominate Trump this year, following the Pakistani government.
More international leaders have teased other nominations for Trump. Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Sun Chanthol followed through on a promise to nominate Trump after a deal was struck with Thailand. Leaders from Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mauritania, and Senegal also endorsed Trump for the prize.
Since those nominations, Trump has been involved in negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Thailand and Cambodia, Rwanda and the Congo, and India and Pakistan.
Trump has touted six “major wars” that he prevented in the first eight months of his second term. However, Bolton suggested Trump should not take credit while on ABC News’s This Week in August.
“I don’t think what [Trump] has done materially changes the situations in any of those circumstances or several others he’s mentioned,” Bolton said at the time.
“Like Pakistan-India, where the Indians — not just the government, the entire country — are outraged, he tried to take credit for that. In Thailand-Cambodia, he simply threatened tariffs if they didn’t sign a deal. They signed the deal; nothing has changed,” he added.
“The real kicker in Azerbaijan-Armenia was the Russians allowing Azerbaijan to take control of Nagorno-Karabakh in the last year,” Bolton continued.
“I think what Trump has done is make it clear that he wants a Nobel Peace Prize more than anything else,” he said. “And the way to his heart, as Pakistani Chief of Staff [Asim] Munir found and Netanyahu found, is offer to nominate him.”
Since Bolton made those comments, Trump helped broker the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.
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However, the Nobel Peace Prize ultimately went to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado instead of Trump.
Bolton is facing 18 charges related to his alleged improper handling of classified documents. These charges came after FBI agents raided his office in late August and allegedly found classified materials. He has pleaded not guilty.
