Donald Trump and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) have had quite the feud going since the president took office in January.
Trump has been able to pressure most members of Congress to bend to his will, but Massie has stood firm and now seems to be opposing the White House on every issue out of spite.
We are about to find out who has more pull in the state of Kentucky, as a Trump-affiliated PAC has clearly targeted the Republican congressman for ouster.
Massie has not agreed with Trump on many things, but when the BBB hit the floor, the volume on this feud was turned up to new levels.
The congressman hit back at the legislation, claiming, “The BBB now allows funding sex changes for minors! This ad slams me for voting against the BBB, but the Senate just stripped the ‘ban on sex changes for minors’ from the BBB. By the ads’ twisted logic, those who support the Senate’s edits now support sex changes for minors.”
The feud between the lawmaker and Trump went all the way back to House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) election to the top job in the chamber, when Massie was the only House member to reject him. Johnson touched on this after winning the gavel for the second time, stating, “But I certainly understand the president’s frustration about the colleague you named, and he and I talk about that quite a bit.”
He continued, “Can’t quite understand what the rationale is, but 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 what your motive is and what your philosophy is and why you’re so consistently opposed to the platform, the agenda of your party.”
The first sign that Trump was actually going to go after Massie came via the Kentucky MAGA PAC, which is run by two of the president's former top aides.
Trump’s former co-campaign manager, Chris LaCivita, and longtime pollster Tony Fabrizio formed the PAC, and made no qualms about eliminating anyone who did not cave to the president's wishes, with Massie's name sitting atop that list.
LaCivita stated, “If you want to be part of an effort to defeat Massie you will go through us. And the Trump political operation will run the campaign.”
Trump also fired a shot to give the resistance against Massie a boost, stating, “Massie is weak, ineffective, and votes ‘NO’ on virtually everything put before him (Rand Paul, Jr.), no matter how good something may be. MAGA should drop this pathetic LOSER, Tom Massie, like the plague! The good news is that we will have a wonderful American Patriot running against him in the Republican Primary, and I’ll be out in Kentucky campaigning really hard.”
Kentucky MAGA is now locked and loaded, putting out a huge ad buy to try to take out Massie by appealing to voters to “fire” him.
The ad states, “Who’s Thomas Massie fighting for? Not the single moms who no longer pay taxes on their tips; not the police officers who no longer pay taxes on their overtime; not the seniors who no longer pay taxes on Social Security."
It continues, “President Trump passed those working-class tax cuts, but Thomas Massie joined the Democrats and voted ‘no.’ Let’s fire Thomas Massie.”
Kentucky is a bit of a different animal when it comes to politics, and Massie is extremely popular, running unopposed in 2024 and winning his 2022 race by 34%. This is not going to be an easy quest for Trump, and if he and his allies put all of their eggs into this basket and come up short, it will be a huge blow to the president in terms of the power he wields in the House and among Republicans in general. Dig in, my friends, because this is about to get very interesting.
