One Republican lawmaker isn’t backing down to Donald Trump, and it’s sending the president for a spiral.

Representative Thomas Massie was the only House Republican to vote against passing a stopgap measure Tuesday to keep the Trump administration funded through September. The budget bill narrowly passed 217–213, with one Democrat—Representative Jared Golden—voting for the measure.

“So Massie can vote for Debt Ceiling AND Budget to be put into the Trump Administration, making them both the Republicans problem and responsibility, but can’t give us a simple Continuing Resolution vote allowing us the time necessary to come up with a ‘GREAT, BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL???’” Trump posted on Truth Social early Wednesday morning. “Republicans only ‘NO’ Vote. GRANDSTANDER!”

The Senate now has until Friday to pass the legislation and avert a government shutdown.

Massie has been Trump’s go-to target this week after the Kentucky Republican made it clear Monday he would vote against the bill. The president took to his usual tactic: threatening party members on social media until they cave.

“Congressman Thomas Massie, of beautiful Kentucky, is an automatic ‘NO’ vote on just about everything, despite the fact that he has always voted for Continuing Resolutions in the past. HE SHOULD BE PRIMARIED, and I will lead the charge against him,” Trump posted on Truth Social Monday night.

But this time, it didn’t work. Instead of cowering to the GOP’s autocrat like many of his colleagues have done before him, Massie responded to the president’s threat with humor and a smile.

“He’s going after Canada and me today. The difference is Canada will eventually cave,” Massie told reporters Tuesday, Politico reported.

In his 15 years in the House, Massie has had no problem breaking from his colleagues. In fact he’s voted against so many bills that it earned him the nickname “Mr. No.”

The 54-year-old is well-versed in responding to Trump’s empty threats too. In 2020, after Massie forced the House to vote in person on a Covid-19 response bill, the president called him a “third-rate-grandstander” and threatened to boot him from the GOP.

But Massie’s still here, and he will no doubt continue to vote according to his own hawkish budgetary principles.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. equated the health risks of getting the measles vaccine to contracting measles itself, in a dangerous escalation of his misinformation campaign amidst massive outbreaks.

Kennedy continued to emphasize that getting vaccinated should be a personal choice during an interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity that aired Tuesday night.

“The government shouldn’t force them to do it, there are adverse events from the vaccine, it does cause deaths every year,” Kennedy warned.

“It causes all the illnesses that measles itself causes, encephalitis, and blindness, et cetera,” he continued. “And so people ought to be able to make that choice for themselves. And what we need to do is give them the best information, and encourage them to vaccinate. The vaccine does stop the spread of the disease.”

But Kennedy doesn’t actually think that the vaccine and the illness are the same—he thinks one is better. During the interview, the health secretary claimed that contracting measles was somehow a better method at prevention than getting the vaccine, because it gave people natural immunity.

“It used to be, when I was a kid, that everybody got measles. And the measles gave you lifetime protection against measles infection,” he said. “The vaccine doesn’t do that. The vaccine is effective for some people for life, but for many people it wanes.”

To put it simply, within one interview, Kennedy suggested people might be better off just letting themselves get sick—promoting the spread of the deadly illness that has already infected more than 220 people across several states, resulting in the death of at least one child. Then, the health secretary said that people could get the vaccine, but suggested that it was just as dangerous as contracting a viral illness.

The Centers for Disease Control states that the MMR vaccine is the safest way to protect against measles, and is “much safer than getting measles, mumps, or rubella.” The side effects of the measles vaccine are “usually mild and go away on their own,” according to the CDC.

Encephalitis International, a health non-profit, found that only one to two children in one million who received a measles vaccination developed encephalitis from the vaccination, “which is less than the incidence of all types of encephalitis.”

While measles can cause childhood blindness, the CDC does not consider blindness as a possible side effect of MMR.

Throughout the current outbreak, Kennedy has continually downplayed the importance of getting vaccinated while promoting unproven medicines, such as cod liver oil, which contains vitamin A. He has also claimed that the inhaled steroid budesonide and the antibiotic clarithromycin resulted in “almost miraculous and instantaneous.” While these may help to treat some of the symptoms associated with measles, they will not prevent infections.

Dr. Angela Rasmussen, a virologist, tore into Kennedy’s remarks in a post on X Tuesday calling his claims “two truths & a lie.”

“Truth: There are adverse events from MMR and all vaccines. Truth: People die, albeit very, very, VERY rarely,” she wrote. “BIG FUCKING LIE: the MMR does NOT cause measles or any sequelae. It prevents measles. It’s safe & effective. Measles disables & kills children.”

In a separate post, she noted that the vaccine’s mortality rate was often “grossly exaggerated” by the anti-vaccine movement, of which Kennedy has long been a fixture.

Not only are Kennedy’s claims false and misleading, and not the position of the government he purports to represent, but they are a dangerous message for Americans in the midst of ongoing measles outbreaks.

Donald Trump’s wild tariff moves are freaking out his own advisers, who are getting panicked messages from business leaders.

The Wall Street Journal

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