Trump targets Massie after Epstein fight

U.S. President Donald Trump is yet again aiming to show he has an iron grip on the Republican Party, pushing to oust the Republican congressman who stood up to him on the Epstein files. Thomas Massie, the seven-term representative from Kentucky, must win a primary on Tuesday to remain the Republican candidate during this fall’s midterm election. Trump has backed a challenger to Massie, urging Republicans to “vote the bum out” and so much money has flowed into the campaign that it has hit a

record for spending in a House primary. It’s impossible to overstate the extent of Trump’s publicly aired contempt for Massie. The president has called the congressman “a major sleazebag,” “a disloyal, ungracious, and sanctimonious FOOL” and “the worst and most unreliable Republican Congressman in the history of our Country.” And that’s just since Saturday, in a storm of social media posts targeting Massie. Massie rose to national prominence in 2025 when the Trump administration balked at releasing Department of Justice files on its investigations into

Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier who died by suicide while facing trial. The Kentucky Republican led the push in Congress for a bill that forced the release of the files, which passed overwhelmingly despite Trump’s vehement opposition. Massie has long been a bit of a maverick since his first election win in 2012, frequently refusing to toe the party line on votes when he felt a bill was not sufficiently conservative. During Trump’s first term in the White House, Massie rubbed the president the wrong

way often enough that Trump called for his ouster in the 2020 Republican primary, but Massie prevailed. This time around, despite his waning popularity among the broader voting public, Trump has demonstrated that he still retains huge power and influence over his party’s base, particularly when it comes to getting rid of Republicans he believes have crossed him. Trump called for the ouster of a sitting U.S. senator from Louisiana, Bill Cassidy, who had voted to convict Trump in the January 6 impeachment proceedings. Last

weekend, Cassidy came third in the Republican primary, losing his chance to run for re-election in November on the party’s ticket. Trump’s efforts helped topple five Republican state senators in Indiana who had rejected his call to redraw election maps in ways that would benefit the GOP in the midterms. Will Massie become the next Republican victim of a Trump political vendetta? The decision is up to registered Republicans in Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District, which sweeps northeast from the outskirts of Louisville along the Ohio

River, through the suburbs south of Cincinnati and over to the lush foothills and old coal towns of Appalachia. Massie’s challenger is Ed Gallrein, a former Navy SEAL whose campaign team includes some key Trump advisers. On Monday, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth campaigned for Gallrein in Kentucky and praised the candidate’s background with the U.S. Navy’s elite special operations force. Hegseth rips Massie for ‘being against everything’ “Men who come from that kind of world, they don’t scare easily. Washington doesn’t intimidate them, the

media doesn’t intimate them,” Hegseth told a campaign event in Hebron, Ky. “Contrast that with what we’ve gotten from Tom Massie,” Hegseth continued. “At some point, being against everything becomes an excuse for accomplishing nothing,” he said. “President Trump does not need more people in Washington who are trying to make a point, especially from his own party.” Tonya Young, a 57-year-old special education teacher in Covington. Ky., told an Associated Press reporter that she had yet to make up her mind. “If all we’re

doing is pulling in yes men, then how do you grow from that?” Young said. “However, I do feel like it’s important to stay loyal. That’s where, I’m like, I’m a hot mess.”

Donald Trump, Thomas Massie, Ed Gallrein, Kentucky 4th Congressional District, Epstein files, Department of Justice, Pete Hegseth, Bill Cassidy, Indiana state senators, Republican primary, House primary spending