In Kentucky, Trump tees off on Massie and urges his ouster: ‘The worst’

President Trump lashed out at Rep. Thomas Massie (Ky.) on Wednesday, accusing the seven-term Republican of opposing the president’s agenda and urging Kentucky voters to replace him in Congress.

In a visit to a packaging plant in Hebron, Ky., which lies in Massie’s 4th Congressional District, Trump said Massie’s vote against the president’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act — a massive package of tax cuts and tougher immigration laws — had threatened to undermine national security and hurt working-class people economically.  

“He’s the worst,” Trump told the cheering crowd. “He only votes no. He just votes no. It doesn’t matter. I could give him the best things in the history of a Republican voter, and he’d vote no. There is something wrong with him.”

Trump is endorsing Massie’s primary opponent, Ed Gallrein, a farmer and former Navy SEAL officer who has never held political office. Trump said Gallrein decided to get into the race because Massie is “not doing right for our president.”

Gallrein, in turn, is vowing not to stray from Trump on any issue facing the country.

“You deserve an authentic, true Republican conservative that stands shoulder to shoulder with our president and the Republican Party and against the Democrats who are trying to destroy our nation,” Gallrein said at the rally.  

The primary poses the greatest threat to Massie’s long career in Congress, and it’s being closely watched as a barometer of Trump’s influence over the GOP, even as his approval numbers are sinking in his lame-duck term.

First elected to the House in 2012, Massie has a long history of bucking GOP leaders, especially on issues of federal spending and the separation of powers in matters of war. But his independent streak has gained outsized attention during Trump’s return to office over the last year, through which Massie has been a lonely voice of dissent against some of the president’s most prominent priorities, including the GOP megabill, Trump’s tariffs, and the president’s use of military force in Iran.

Massie also made waves as one of the loudest champions of releasing the government’s files on Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender who died in federal prison while awaiting sex-trafficking charges. On the campaign trail, Trump had vowed to release those files, but he reversed course after being briefed that he was a featured figure within them.

Massie maintains that his voting record simply reflects his conservative principles — and that it aligns with the promises Trump made on the 2024 campaign trail, which he says the president is breaking.

Massie did not attend Trump’s rally in his district. But heading into the event, he took a swipe at the president for promoting attendance with sponsored bus rides.

“They’re paying to bus people to the Trump event in my Congressional District,” Massie wrote on the social platform X. “What they’ll discover is Trump fans in KY-4 and across the entire Commonwealth also support my work on the Epstein files, reigning in spending, ending forever wars, draining the swamp, and food freedom!”

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