President Donald Trump has intensified his attacks on Republican Congressman Thomas Massie, marking him as the next target in his campaign of retribution against political opponents. Massie, a Kentucky Republican, has frequently found himself in Trump's crosshairs over the past year due to his efforts to release the Epstein files and his opposition to the GOP's signature tax bill last summer. Their feud escalated further after Massie refused to endorse Trump's military action in Iran.
Trump's Social Media Tirade
Fresh from his success in ousting incumbent Senator Bill Cassidy, who failed to make the Republican runoff in Louisiana on Saturday evening, Trump launched a blistering attack on Massie in a Sunday morning Truth Social post. 'Bad Congressman Tom Massie voted against Tax Cuts, the Border Wall, our Military and Law Enforcement. Actually, he voted against almost everything that is good,' Trump wrote. 'The Worst Republican Congressman in History. Kentucky, vote the bum out on Tuesday. We can’t live with this troublemaker for another two years. He is a true negative force,' the president concluded.
Support for Massie from Some Conservatives
Despite Trump's disdain, not all conservatives want to see Massie ousted. Alex Clark, host of the Culture Apothecary podcast (a project of Turning Point USA), called Massie one of the 'true MAHA [Make America Healthy Again] fighters in government.' In a Sunday morning post on X, she wrote, 'One person who was fighting for these issues long before MAHA even had a name? Thomas Massie. We need to keep him in office.' Massie also received support from fellow Republican Representative Lauren Boebert of Colorado, who campaigned alongside him in Kentucky over the weekend.
Trump's Response to Boebert
However, Trump responded with a scorching Truth Social tirade, mocking Boebert as 'Weak Minded Lauren Boebert' and accusing her of betraying the MAGA movement by supporting Massie. Boebert replied on X, stating she was 'not mad or offended' and added, 'I knew the risks when I agreed to stand by my friend Thomas Massie.'
The Primary Challenge
Massie, well-liked by many state and local politicians in his northern Kentucky district, faces a primary challenge from former Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein, who was handpicked by Trump's political team. Massie has accused Gallrein of abandoning the Republican Party after Trump's 2016 election win, producing voter registration cards he claims show Gallrein left the GOP and did not re-register until 2021. 'I call them voter transition cards. He transitioned out of the party and stayed out for five years,' Massie said at a GOP event in March. The cards, posted on Massie's X account and featured in a campaign ad, have been central to his case against Gallrein, portraying him as a fair-weather Republican whose party loyalty only returned when Trump was out of power. The ad claims that 'woke Eddie left the Republican Party right after President Trump won the Republican nomination in May of 2016' and that as the MAGA movement took off, 'disgusted by what he sees, woke Eddie Gallrein turns his back on Trump and walks away.'
Gallrein's Response
Gallrein's campaign did not dispute the ad's validity but instead blasted Massie in a statement shared with the Daily Mail in March, noting: 'Clearly Thomas Massie is desperate because he knows the fact is that he has been exposed as a RINO [Republican in Name Only] and an ally of the Democrats and he has fallen to the bottom in the polls.' A poll released last Wednesday by Quantus Insights showed Massie trailing Gallrein, with 48.3 percent of 908 respondents backing Trump-endorsed Gallrein, 43.1 percent supporting Massie, and over 8 percent undecided. The primary is scheduled for May 19 in Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District.
Trump's Broader Campaign
Trump hopes to add a defeat of Massie to his list of wins, which includes Cassidy and a group of Indiana state senators who were ousted in primaries on May 5 after refusing to back a Trump-backed redistricting plan.
