(TNND) -- A fissure has erupted between President Donald Trump and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a die-hard supporter of the president who has grown increasingly critical of the president's policies.
Trump announced he was pulling his support for Greene and said he would back a viable primary challenger.
He called Greene "Wacky" and a "Traitor" who has repeatedly complained despite "Record Achievements for our Country" under his watch.
"She has gone Far Left, even doing The View, with their Low IQ Republican hating Anchors," Trump said in a series of weekend social media posts that were critical of Greene.
Greene, a Republican who represents a district in northwest Georgia, told CNN in a weekend interview that Trump's attacks against her were hurtful.
"I stood with President Trump when virtually no one else did, campaigned all over the country, spent millions of my own dollars helping him get elected," Greene said.
Greene blamed the rift on her push to get the Epstein files released.
She's been calling for their full release, joining House Democrats and three other House Republicans in signing a petition to force a vote on releasing the files.
But Greene has also differed with Trump on other matters in recent months, including his involvement in foreign entanglements, support of visas for foreign students and temporary workers, and the extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies.
"I can say that promoting H-1B visas to replace American jobs, bringing in 600,000 Chinese students to replace American students' opportunities in American colleges and universities, those are not America-first positions," Greene said in the CNN interview. "And continuing to really travel all over the world doesn't help Americans back at home. I really ... would love to see Air Force One be parked and stay home and there be nothing but a constant focus in the White House on a domestic agenda that helps the American people once and for all."
Jake Neiheisel, a political scientist at the University at Buffalo, said Trump might be attacking Greene, at least in part, to make an example out of her.
"This looks like the way you would deal with dissent within your ranks," Neiheisel said.
Todd Belt, the Political Management program director at George Washington University, said Trump may also be going after Greene as a way to control the narrative.
Belt said it's Trump's "standard operating procedure" to attack anyone who undercuts his agenda.
"And it particularly stings him when somebody is apparently loyal and turns on him," Belt said.
Belt said this isn't the first time Trump has gone after someone in his own party, mentioning Rep. Thomas Massie as an example.
Massie and Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna launched the discharge petition in an effort to secure the release of the Epstein files.
Those files have been a thorn in Trump's side, and the attention they received overshadowed Trump's ability to take a victory lap over the end of the government shutdown, Belt said.
Trump, until this weekend, has been resistant of calls to release the Epstein files.
"And he really wishes this would go away," Belt said. "The problem is, he was elected by people who thought he was going to unveil all the cover-ups of the deep state. And now he looks like he's engaging in exactly the same thing, which is why we've seen his dramatic turnaround overnight on the issue."
Is the nasty split going to hurt Greene politically?
"Donald Trump is very good at getting Republicans to run in primaries, and they often win," Belt said. "They often don't win the general election, but (Greene's) district is so heavily Republican that whoever wins the primary will win the general election. The question is if there's enough people there who are going to stand by her or go with the president."
Neiheisel said the feud might be more dangerous for Greene if it were happening in a very public way closer to next year's midterms.
"But I think that between now and the midterms, this is the time period we're going to see individual legislators buck Trump a little bit," he said.
Oklahoma State University politics professor Seth McKee said Greene might be making a political calculation that her positions will play well enough with voters that it won't derail her political career to have Trump mad at her.
"I think there is a deliberate behavior here in terms of saying, 'I'm going to side with the victims in this Epstein case.' (And) it's never a bad play to be on the side of affordable health care," McKee said. "That's not a bold play."
McKee said Trump's approval is "tracking in the wrong direction," and that might embolden some GOP House members, especially those in swing districts, to speak out against some of Trump's policies.
All three men said there's always a chance that Trump and Greene will reconcile.
"Just because you're on different sides of something one day doesn't mean that a pressing issue won't come up the following day or a few weeks down the road where you find yourself on the same side and working together," Belt said.