Simply as President Donald Trump seems to have hit pause on a significant battle within the Center East, he’s intensifying one at dwelling.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) is the chief goal of the president’s highly effective political operation, which is seeking to oust the outspoken congressman within the GOP major subsequent 12 months.
The congressman has been a thorn within the president’s aspect previously, however Massie’s newest menace to introduce a decision aimed toward reining in presidential warfare powers comes as Trump was already seething about Massie’s a number of makes an attempt to thwart the “big, beautiful bill” forward of Republicans’ self-imposed July 4 deadline.
Massie has simply beat again challenges earlier than, together with a raft of cash from pro-Israel donors. However this time, the six-term Congressman’s robust impartial political model might not face up to the blitz that the president’s allies seem able to unleash. Not solely has Trump vowed to marketing campaign “really hard” in opposition to Massie subsequent 12 months, his political operation has launched an excellent PAC devoted solely to defeating the Kentuckian.
“He’s probably more vulnerable than he’s been since he first won in a primary because of all this,’ said GOP strategist and former Kentucky state Rep. Adam Koenig. “There’s money outside of Trump world ready to go after Massie.”
Trump’s political equipment started ramping up its efforts in addition Massie after the consultant voted in opposition to the celebration’s huge tax-and-spending bundle for the president’s home coverage priorities when it first went by means of the Home final month. It went public with its plans — an excellent PAC dubbed Kentucky MAGA led by two of the president’s most-trusted lieutenants, Chris LaCivita and pollster Tony Fabrizio, first reported by Axios — as Massie pushed to reassert congressional authority over Trump’s army actions in Iran.
“He has established himself as a contrarian for contrarian sake,” LaCivita mentioned in a textual content message to POLITICO. “He should be a man and switch parties instead of posing as a Republican.”
The president and his advisers have viciously attacked Massie on social media in latest days, with Trump marshalling his MAGA base to dump “LOSER” Massie and “GET THIS ‘BUM’ OUT OF OFFICE.”
Trump and Massie have had a contentious relationship relationship again to the president’s first time period, when he pushed to “throw Massie out of the Republican Party” after the Kentucky Republican erected a roadblock to Trump’s Covid-19 reduction bundle in March 2020. Trump later endorsed Massie’s 2022 reelection bid and Massie backed Trump in 2024 — however solely after initially supporting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis within the presidential major.
However now that Trump is again within the Oval Workplace, Massie has tried to cripple the president’s legislative agenda a number of instances, together with changing into the one Republican to vote in opposition to a stopgap authorities funding invoice in March. In contrast to previously, the president seems to be making good on his threats to attempt getting Massie out of workplace by placing an excellent PAC on the case.
“I think there’s a real opportunity…they’re going to spend upwards of $30 million to defeat Thomas Massie,” mentioned one Kentucky GOP political operative who, like many interviewed for this story, was granted anonymity to debate delicate intraparty issues.
The operative, who didn’t vote for Trump, additionally heard rumblings that AIPAC, probably the most outstanding pro-Israel teams, can be able to spend massive within the Could 2026 Kentucky major — suggesting Massie’s anti-war efforts could also be met with resistance on a number of fronts. Some Republican strategists estimate mixed spending may attain as excessive as $45 million, an remarkable complete for a major contest within the 4th Congressional District. (The one exterior spending in opposition to Massie in final 12 months’s major was about $320,000 from AIPAC’s tremendous PAC, United Democracy Venture.)
Even Speaker Mike Johnson hedged Tuesday on whether or not he would assist Massie subsequent 12 months — regardless of acknowledging it’s his job as the highest Home Republican to guard his celebration’s incumbents.
“I certainly understand the president’s frustration” with Massie, Johnson advised reporters on the Capitol. “If you’re here and you’re wearing one team’s jersey and every single time you vote with the other team, people begin to question … why you’re so consistently opposed to the platform, the agenda of your party.”
However Massie seems unfazed by Trump and his allies’ electoral threats.
“In 2020 I got my Trump antibodies from a natural infection when he came after me, and I survived,” Massie quipped to reporters on Tuesday. “It will deplete his political capital if he doesn’t succeed, and he knows that. So that’s got to be part of his calculus.”
In reality, Massie is embracing the combat. On Twitter, he teased an interview with podcaster Theo Von, an indication that he’s in search of to widen his publicity in a format that favors Massie’s distinctive model of an isolationist price range hawk. He’s fundraising off the social-media sparring with Trump, telling Hill reporters Monday night that he’d raised roughly $120,000 in 24 hours.
And he’s nonetheless pledging to maneuver forward along with his warfare powers decision if the ceasefire between Iran and Israel doesn’t maintain, saying in tv interviews and to Hill reporters it’s “not clear the war is over.”
Overhanging the first menace is the query of precisely which candidate Trump’s allies take into account to run in opposition to the incumbent. Already, some suppose first-term state Sen. Aaron Reed, a retired Navy Seal and gun store proprietor who is never seen with out his cowboy hat, can be a potential challenger. An alternative choice is state Rep. Kimberly Moser, who will not be regarded as historically MAGA, however has over time made inroads with the Trump wing of the celebration. There are some potential outsiders who might need the means to self-fund a marketing campaign as properly, like political pundit Scott Jennings or former gubernatorial candidate Kelly Craft.
“I think it’s too soon to know if his outright opposition to what Trump has done – and I think it’s pretty horrible what [Massie’s] done – will make a difference,” mentioned Ellen Williams, a former chair of the Kentucky GOP. “You can’t just put anybody up against him and spend a shitload of money. I just think it emboldens him.”
Members of Kentucky’s congressional delegation say Massie’s sprawling district, which runs alongside the northern border alongside Ohio and Indiana and stretches from the southern Cincinnati suburbs to the outer bands of the Louisville metro space, is a singular cross-section of the state that seems to relish Massie’s impartial streak.
It’s dwelling to among the most outstanding members of the “liberty faction” of the Kentucky Republican Celebration, a gaggle that embraces Trump whereas additionally gravitating towards libertarian-leaning Republicans like Massie and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul. The senator has weathered his personal barrage of assaults from Trump for voicing opposition to the megabill and defended Massie to POLITICO on Tuesday.
Massie is “very popular in Kentucky,” Paul mentioned. “I will continue to support him.”
“His district is different,” Rep. James Comer, a fellow Kentucky Republican, mentioned Tuesday on Capitol Hill, although he declined to weigh in on the battle between Massie and Trump. “That’s a unique congressional district.”
Former Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson believes Trump, as a lot as he’s the undisputed chief of the Republican Celebration, could also be overplaying his hand on the subject of Massie’s district.
“As popular as Trump is in Republican politics, as popular as Trump is in Kentucky, as popular as Trump is in the 4th District, on the substance, on the policy, Thomas wins those arguments over Trump,” Grayson mentioned. “Until you see someone step up, Thomas is still pretty formidable.”
He additionally warned of repercussions for Trump, who — constitutionally barred from in search of workplace once more — is a lame duck. If the consultant is ready to fend off a major problem, it may open the floodgates for others who’ve non-public misgivings in regards to the president’s actions.
“It will make a difference if Massie were to overcome this,” Grayson added. “If he wins, if you’re a member, you’d be more likely to speak out in the future.”
Massie’s by no means been in severe jeopardy within the GOP major. His closest major contest was when he first ran for Congress in 2012 when he defeated Alecia Webb-Edgington, a state consultant, to succeed the retiring Rep. Geoff Davis by roughly 7,000 votes. In subsequent major contests, Massie cruised to victory in in any other case low-turnout primaries the place he received with a minimum of 60 p.c of the vote.
Many operatives imagine Trump would wish to juice major turnout significantly to reach his quest to topple Massie. Some cautioned that Trump’s recognition 11 months from now may shift significantly.
Massie was matter-of-fact in regards to the challenges earlier than him Tuesday afternoon when addressing reporters.
“I just have to spend more money if he gets in the race,” Massie mentioned, when requested his ideas on Trump meddling in his major. He then laid out a pair of eventualities, one during which Trump endorses somebody after which backtracks on the endorsement — because the president has finished earlier than. He floated one other during which Trump’s allies lay down some huge cash and groundwork, solely to desert its efforts down the road.
“They’re gonna try to talk to somebody in the race…tell them that the Trump endorsement is coming, and then they’ll wait to see if that person can get close. And if that person can get close, then Trump may get in,” Massie mentioned. “If that person can’t, they’ll leave that person hanging on the bone.”
CORRECTION: This text initially misstated Aaron Reed’s title.
Supply hyperlink
The submit Massie isn't backing down. Neither is Trump. appeared first on World On-line.
