Greene entered Congress in 2021 and rose to fame as an extreme supporter of Donald Trump, dedicated to controversy and partisan drama. Winning the nod to chair the DOGE subcommittee tied her to Elon Musk, the Trump megadonor whose so-called Department of Government Efficiency has taken a chainsaw to federal staffing and budgets.
But as polling shows Musk becoming increasingly unpopular, and Trump’s ratings suffering too, Democrats see Greene’s committee as a promising stage for a fight.
“This is our shot to not just win the midterms, but to transform our party into one that can win big in the presidential election and get back to our roots,” Rep. Gregorio Casar (D-TX), a DOGE subcommittee member, told Raw Story.
“We can't let them wear us down or have us give up. We have to see it as a golden opportunity. You have the richest people on Earth bragging on social media that they are getting richer while everybody else is getting screwed, and Marjorie Taylor Greene is the face of their movement. I mean, Democrats have to be able to win that fight.”
But after Trump won the White House in November, no one’s holding their breath, especially not elected Democrats who risk attracting progressive primary challengers if they are even slightly perceived to be acting as MAGA enablers: one distinct danger of sitting on the DOGE subcommittee, with Greene in control.
“A very destructive person”
It’s grueling for Democrats to sit underneath Greene’s gavel, fear-laced whims and oversized posterboards — so much so that when the DOGE subcommittee was announced, Democratic leaders considered boycotting it, in part because they feared legitimizing Greene and the increasingly far-flung right.
“The person charged with executing this vision is Marjorie Taylor Greene,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told MSNBC in December. “Are you kidding me? This is not a serious effort when you put Marjorie Taylor Greene in charge. It speaks for itself.”
But a few months and countless headlines later, Democrats on the subcommittee say it’s been worth it going toe-to-toe with the serial conspiracy peddlers who comprise roughly half of the eight Republican members.
Asked what it was like working with Greene, and if she showed any signs of co-operative behavior, Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) — one of the six Democrats on the panel — told Raw Story: “No, not really. I think that she's a very destructive person. She just sits there and spouts, like, lies and conspiracy theories at all these hearings.”
As Garcia learned personally, disruptive behavior is easier in the majority. At the subcommittee’s first hearing in February, Garcia called Musk a “d--k.” He also said Democrats needed to “bring actual weapons to this bar fight.” Soon after, Trump’s Justice Department came knocking, suggesting he’d issued a threat.
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) speaks to reporters. Jose Cabezas/Reuters
Despite such bumps, Democrats say they are getting their groove back. They need to. After November’s rout, they were depleted, depressed and without a discernible strategy. In January and February, as Musk and his unelected DOGE army eradicated whole agencies and even tried to erase history itself — including, if temporarily, the term ‘Native American,’ an Air Force training video on the Tuskegee Airmen and even Harriet Tubman's picture — Democrats remained at a loss.
Now, the relatively youthful Democrats on the DOGE subcommittee are using, or desperately trying to use, their perch to speak past Greene and address everyday Americans.
Garcia insisted: “I think it’s important that we’re there. She shouldn’t be allowed to just say crazy s—t and not have any sort of response to it. It’s good that we’re there.”
The subcommittee has become a congressional petri dish, for testing talking points, energizing social media and real-time experimenting with trash talk formerly deemed unbecoming.
Admittedly, it’s one of the dirtiest jobs in Trump’s Washington. Going toe-to-toe with MTG means taking on a digital heavyweight: deft, ruthless, unconcerned by facts as we know them. But Democrats think it will prove rewarding.
“For a long time, progressive Democrats especially have been trying to make the case that these right-wing, nutty politicians are just puppets for billionaire interests that are trying to steal your money,” Casar said. “Now you see that on TV every day.”
The second-term congressman offered two examples: “Elon Musk is out there bragging about wanting to eliminate Social Security, and Marjorie Taylor Greene is doing every crazy thing she can to help him and to distract from the real issues hurting Americans.
“… I see the subcommittee as a real opportunity for Democrats of all stripes to say, ‘Oh, if we want efficiency, we should go after Big Tech and Big Pharma and the big corporations that are milking taxpayers, but Marjorie Taylor Greene is wanting to go after your healthcare and your kids educational programming.’ If we can't take that committee as an opportunity to rebuild our party, then we're missing the point.”
Away from Washington, Casar recently rallied with Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders — the Vermont independent who ran for president as a Democrat — on their “Fighting Oligarchy” tour.
“When I went to Tucson with them, they said that we were going to be in the high school gym with 2,000 people. Next thing you know, 23,000 people show up and fill the whole football field and it's the biggest rally in Arizona history,” Casar gushed. “That's what's going on out there.”
‘I think Musk is doing more’
That was Arizona. Washington still belongs to Trump, Musk and MTG. Congress’ two-week Easter vacation ends Monday, the economy is wobbling and after a string of unforced errors, Trump needs a win. As always, MAGA has his back. Online armies are itching for battle.
Republicans have not yet put internal differences aside to codify an array of constitution-testing, court-confined DOGE cuts. Trump is also set on extending his first-term tax cuts, while intensifying deportations.
Expect dealmaking and arm-twisting to abound. Democrats aren’t invited to those GOP-only confabs, of course, which is why the party’s attorneys general have been firing off state lawsuits since Trump turned his inauguration into an executive order signing party and set loose Musk and DOGE.
Elon Musk attends the America First Policy Institute (AFPI) gala at Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, last November. Carlos Barria/Reuters
"Much of the actions so far taken by DOGE — talking about both the [group] that Musk runs and the committee — have been illegal," Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) told Raw Story. "So we've been able to reverse a lot of that. Remember, when they cut the funding for some of the [federal] grants? Things like that, we've been successful in court overturning that.”
It’s been a mostly winning strategy, mostly at the local level, away from Capitol Hill. Lynch, a member of MTG’s DOGE committee, happily conceded the point.
“That's been the only recourse we've been able to have, but we've been successful on, maybe, 80% of the cases,” he said. “So we're going to keep doing that.”
Musk's role in Trump’s administration may be winding down, but Democrats remain wary. Though they face off against MTG, they know she is merely Musk’s sidekick.
“I think Musk is doing more,” Lynch said. “That might change. He seems to be phasing out, but right now, we've been more occupied with dealing with Elon Musk than we have with anything that the gentlelady from Georgia has put forward. They're talking to each other, that's for sure.
“It's a challenge. But one we expected.”
