Washington (AFP) - Marjorie Taylor Greene promotes the far-right QAnon conspiracy theory and calls white men the most oppressed group in the US, but President Donald Trump praised her Wednesday as a "future Republican Star" and she's all but sure to enter Congress after winning a primary contest.
"Congratulations," Trump tweeted. "Marjorie is strong on everything and never gives up - a real WINNER!"
Primary races for congressional seats rarely get national attention, let alone presidential fanfare.
But Greene's easy victory on Tuesday over a more mainstream Republican in Georgia illustrates the radicalization of US politics less than 90 days before Trump faces off against Democrat Joe Biden for the White House.
Greene backs the increasingly popular conspiracy theory that Trump and a mysterious entity called Q are fighting a satanic, deep state, pedophile cult that secretly controls much of the world.
And her primary victory in a Republican safe seat means the Q fantasy will most likely soon have a voice in Congress, leaving Republican leaders floundering -- seemingly unsure whether to condemn Greene or, as Trump has done, bow to her political momentum.
Greene offered a taste of what's to come at her victory party, where she lashed out at both her own party elite and the Democrats, promising to be the left's "worst nightmare."
Using language that stands out even in the age of Trump -- a fan of crude public insults -- she reportedly called Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives, where she will likely soon be serving, "anti-American."
"We're going to kick that bitch out of Congress," she said, according to a correspondent with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, who was also among journalists told to leave the celebration event.
Fan in chief
Conspiracy theorists have long flourished in America's colorful political scene.
But outlandish, even if easily disproven theories have enjoyed a new lease of life under Trump, whose political rise was closely connected to his concocted accusation that Barack Obama was not born on US soil and was therefore an illegitimate leader.
And Trump's support for Greene is more than reciprocated.
Her "Save America. Stop Socialism" slogan parallels the president's lurid claim to be defending the country from socialist destruction planned by Biden and, like Trump, she rails repeatedly against the "fake news" media.
When Trump tweeted about her on Wednesday, she responded: "Thank you..., You inspired me to run and fight."
Baggage
Greene marches on toward a congressional seat with baggage that in most times might finish a politician's career, but which in her case is part of her winning identity.
"The most mistreated group of people in the United States today are white males," she says in one of a number of videos unearthed by Politico in which Greene disputes that African Americans face discrimination and rants against Muslim Americans.
"Guess what? Slavery is over" and "black people have equal rights," she says, rejecting that racism is a problem.
Referring to the election of two Muslim women Democrats to Congress in the 2018 midterms, Greene denounced "an Islamic invasion into our government offices."
She also promotes the smear that billionaire Democratic donor George Soros, a Jew who survived the Holocaust, was really a collaborator who "turned in his own people over to the Nazis."
But it is Greene's support for the QAnon movement that has gained most attention and will now give what was initially dismissed as a sideshow a likely voice in the nation's legislature.
"Q is a patriot," she said in 2017, referring to the supposed secret whistleblower who is working from inside the Trump administration to reveal the deep state's network of pedophiles and power brokers.
