A surprise dinner meant to showcase President Trump's security in Washington instead helped blow up one of his highest-profile political alliances, according to a new report. Two people on Trump's team tell Axios that the White House privately flagged former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to the Secret Service after anti-war activists from Code Pink confronted Trump at Joe's Seafood in September during an unannounced visit. The Trump aides suspect Greene had tipped off the protesters that he would be there.
Greene pushed back aggressively in a lengthy Friday tweet, per the Hill. "Only the WH set up President Trump's reservation at Joe's, NOT ME!!" she wrote. "I had ZERO knowledge of when his reservation was! The only people who could have tipped off Code Pink was the restaurant or the WH!" She accused the White House of "making up horrific lies about me" as political revenge and threatened legal action. Code Pink spokesperson Melissa Garriga also dismissed the idea that Greene was their source as "comical."
The incident, which came a year after an assassination attempt on Trump, left aides worried about how protesters wound up just feet from his table and marked what they now see as a breaking point in Trump's relationship with Greene, according to Axios. Trump's appearance at the restaurant was meant to showcase Trump's deployment of the National Guard to reduce crime. The Secret Service declined to comment, and it isn't clear whether Greene is under any formal investigation.