Marjorie Taylor Greene ‘sees herself on the shortlist for Trump’s VP’

‘This is no shrinking violet, she’s ambitious, she’s not shy about that, nor should she be,’ Steve Bannon says

Marjorie Taylor Greene is working to become former President Donald Trump’s 2024 running mate, a report says.

Former Trump White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, who hosts a podcast on which the Georgia Republican representative has appeared, told NBC News that “this is no shrinking violet, she’s ambitious, she’s not shy about that, nor should she be”.

“She sees herself on the shortlist for Trump’s VP. Paraphrasing Cokie Roberts, when MTG looks in the mirror she sees a potential president smiling back,” he said, referring to the late NPR political reporter.

Another source, who has served as an adviser to Ms Greene, told NBC that her “whole vision is to be vice president”. The source told the outlet that he thinks she’s on Mr Trump’s list of potential VPs.

The sources told NBC that the aim of becoming Mr Trump’s running mate is at the core of her recent effort to change her image into one of a politician who can bridge the divide within the Republican Party between its hard-right members and the establishment.

It also follows her extensive efforts to get Kevin McCarthy elected House Speaker and her appointment to the Homeland Security and Oversight and Accountability committees. From her perch, she can take on a leading role in investigations of President Joe Biden.

Mr Bannon told NBC it was a calculated risk to endorse the California Republican for the speakership, and in doing so, she isolated herself from some of her colleagues in the House Freedom Caucus and rightwing activists hoping to block Mr McCarthy from grasping the gavel.

“She’s both strategic and disciplined, she made a power move, knowing it would run up hard against her most ardent crew,” he told the network. “She was prepared to take the intense heat” and “hatred short-term for the long-term goal of being a player.”

Mr Trump hasn’t said publically if he’s already considering his running mate options this early in the election process.

His previous running mate, former Vice President Mike Pence, clashed with Mr Trump over his attempts to overturn the 2020 election and his refusal to call off the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, when Trump supporters chanted that Mr Pence should be hanged.

Mr Trump, the only candidate to have announced a 2024 campaign, is travelling to New Hampshire and South Carolina on Saturday in an attempt to boost his campaign’s lacklustre start.

After just over two years in the House, Ms Greene has become one of the GOP’s top fundraisers and one of the most recognisable figures in the chamber after a litany of controversial statements.

Ms Greene raised almost $12.5m during the 2022 midterms, putting her in the top 10 of all candidates for the House, figures from the Center for Responsive Politics’s Open Secrets show.

Her controversial statements have not only made her a prolific fundraiser, but it has also made her a bit of an outcast among some fellow members of both parties.

In February of 2021, a Democratic-controlled House voted to remove Ms Greene from her committees for “conduct she has exhibited” found by other members to be damaging to Congress’s reputation.

At the time, 11 Republicans voted along with all Democrats to remove Ms Greene from the Budget Committee and the Committee on Education and Labor.

The Independent has reached out to representatives of Mr Trump and Ms Greene for comment.