Thomas Massie’s predicament, as he fends off a Trump-backed challenger – and Trump himself – in the Republican primary for his seat in Congress, is symbolic of the vexed relationship libertarians have with the right these days. Massie was not only a Tea Party Republican when he was first elected in 2012, he was a Ron Paul Republican, inspired by the longtime, philosophically libertarian Texas congressman who made his second bid for the GOP presidential nomination that year. The Commonwealth of Kentucky had sent Paul’s son, Rand, to the US Senate two years before, and its 4th congressional district put Massie in the House.

Libertarians are natural junior partners in someone else’s enterprise

Libertarians are natural junior partners in someone else’s enterprise

​Now Trump is trying to take him out. He and Massie have been feuding almost from the moment Trump came back to the White House, and their relationship was often strained even during Trump’s first term. This time the president is going all-out to defeat Massie, even campaigning personally in Massie’s district alongside his primary opponent, Ed Gallrein. An enmity that began with Trump’s frustration at Massie’s willingness to stand on libertarian principle against legislation that adds to the national debt – even when doing so risks inflicting a disaster on the administration, such as the expiration of Trump’s tax cuts – has sharply intensified as Massie became the leading Republican pushing for the release of the Epstein files and Trump began targeting Massie’s wife in his diatribes against the congressman.

​Trump’s relations with Senator Paul are not........

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