Trump says Greene has ‘lost her way’ after criticizing the president

President Trump pushed back on Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, saying “she lost her way” for recent criticism of Mr. Trump and the Republican Party for focusing more on foreign affairs than domestic issues.

Mr. Trump suggested Ms. Greene’s claim he has taken his eye off the ball on domestic policies shows the Georgia Republican misunderstands a president’s role.

“I don’t know what happened to Marjorie. She’s a nice woman, but I don’t know what happened,” Mr. Trump told reporters Monday in the Oval Office. “She’s lost her way, I think. But I have to view the presidency as a worldwide situation, not locally.”

He said, “We could have a world that’s on fire, where wars come to our shores very easily if you had a bad president.”

Mr. Trump listed several of his foreign-policy accomplishments including boosting NATO defense-spending goals from 2% of GDP to 5% and negotiating peace deals in eight different instances while working toward a ninth.

“When you’re president, you really sort of have to watch over the world,” he said. “Otherwise, you’re going to be dragged into a world war.”

Mr. Trump also emphasized that while he is managing global affairs he also passed significant tax cuts, which he argued were crucial for the country’s economic health.

“But with all of that, I passed a great, big, beautiful bill, which is the biggest tax cuts in the history of our country. So when somebody like Marjorie Taylor Greene, who’s now catering to the other side,” he said.  “I don’t know what you know … but I’m surprised at her.”

He added, “But when somebody like Marjorie goes over and starts making statements like that, it shows she doesn’t know.”

Ms. Greene shot to fame as a MAGA-loving conservative firebrand, but she has been vocally critical of Mr. Trump and other Republican leadership, including House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana.

In a recent interview with The Washington Times, she said, “Everybody’s like, ’MTG breaks with Trump. MTG breaks with our party.’ And it’s like, not actually.”

She added, “If you look at anything I said five years ago and you compare it today, it is almost 100% the same.”

She also has flatly disagreed with Mr. Trump’s claim that “we have no inflation” and “our groceries are down.”

Ms. Greene has also taken her message anywhere and everywhere, including such liberal venues as ABC’s “The View.”

Ms. Greene told The Times that she had not spoken with Mr. Trump since the beginning of the shutdown.

“I’m not one of the Republicans that has to run out and say every time I talk with President Trump,” she said.

• Seth McLaughlin contributed to this report.