President Donald Trump and his prime political advisers are plotting an aggressive push to oust one in every of his most persistent Republican adversaries: Rep. Thomas Massie.
And House GOP leaders won’t stand in Trump’s method.
Speaker Mike Johnson and his management staff are sending their clearest alerts up to now that their conservative colleague must fend for himself as Trump’s allies put together to dump tens of millions into Massie’s district to purge him from the Northeastern Kentucky district he’s represented for practically 13 years. In interviews with NCS, 5 members of House GOP management declined to supply their backing for Massie’s reelection bid – and Johnson wouldn’t say if he’d help his colleague.
Instead, the speaker admonished Massie for undercutting his occasion’s agenda – as the libertarian-minded Republican intensifies his livid battle to drive the discharge of the Jeffrey Epstein information and derides Trump’s signature home coverage achievement for driving up the nationwide debt.
“He is actively working against his team almost daily now and seems to enjoy that role. So he is, you know, deciding his own fate,” Johnson instructed NCS, delivering a agency message that occasion leaders wouldn’t intervene to guard Massie within the escalating feud with Trump.
While Johnson mentioned his job is to “lead the incumbent protection program,” the speaker chided Massie for waging “unfounded attacks” towards him. And he added: “My way is to reach out an olive branch to everybody and be a peacemaker. And some people make that very difficult for me.”
The lack of help amongst House GOP leaders is a mirrored image of months of mounting frustration with the Kentucky Republican as he’s personally antagonized each the speaker and president in a sequence of fights – most just lately in attempting to drive a vote on a invoice to launch the Epstein information over intense opposition from Johnson and the White House. Massie wants the help of simply 5 different Republicans – together with all Democrats – to place the invoice on the ground, however he stays two GOP signatures quick.
Trump and his staff are nonetheless looking for a candidate who can go toe-to-toe with the 54-year-old Massie, who has burnished a model of a celebration maverick not afraid to interrupt from his management and the president of his personal occasion – particularly on points of presidency spending and funds deficits. But Trump views Massie as a deeply disloyal actor in a celebration the place he calls for unflinching help.
Trump has met with state Sen. Aaron Reed, who has privately expressed curiosity in a main problem towards Massie, in accordance with three sources aware of the assembly from earlier this summer season. But Trump nonetheless has but to sign he’d endorse Reed, a former Navy SEAL who’s staunchly conservative, as the presiden’ts staff is weighing different potential challengers forward of the January 9 candidate submitting deadline, in accordance with the sources. (Reed didn’t reply to requests for remark.)
But Trump allies absolutely count on the president to place his muscle behind a candidate after his outdoors group pummels Massie with tens of millions in assault adverts.
In an interview, Massie dismissed the assaults and voiced confidence in his reelection possibilities. He pushed again on the criticism from the speaker as he defended his push for the federal government’s information on Epstein’s intercourse trafficking case, citing broad help based mostly on public opinion polls. And he claimed that Trump was attempting to spare a few of his allies and donors from “embarrassment” by shielding the information.
“The speaker’s position depends on him rubber stamping, not just rubber stamping, but reinforcing anything Donald Trump wants, even if Donald Trump is wrong,” Massie mentioned. “So the speaker’s in a tough spot.”
He added: “I don’t see that I’m making their life hard at all, unless they think it’s hard, because they’re going to have to take a vote to put them on record. If that’s hard, I’m sorry, that’s your job.”
Trump and his political advisers are girding for a blockbuster main battle subsequent yr. A professional-Trump tremendous PAC known as “MAGA Kentucky” has reserved $1.6 million in adverts this summer season, in accordance with AdImpact information reviewed by NCS. The group is being led by Chris LaCivita, Trump’s 2024 marketing campaign co-manager, and pollster Tony Fabrizio.
And there might be much more anti-Massie cash to come back. Pro-Israel teams like AIPAC additionally plan to spend large to oust Massie, who has an extended historical past of voting towards US help for Israel, in accordance with an individual aware of the plans.
With the May main nonetheless months away, Massie has but to spend a lot on air, having spent simply $418,000 on adverts this yr. Whether he will get some outdoors help – together with from the world’s richest individual, Elon Musk, who posted on X in June that he’d help Massie as he was railing towards Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act – stays to be seen.
In his greater than a dozen years in Congress, Massie has by no means been a management loyalist, opposing loads of occasion priorities on the ground below a number of GOP audio system – and even unsuccessfully sought to oust Johnson from the speakership final yr.
But his standing inside the occasion has shifted just lately, and plenty of Republicans privately argue that he has grow to be extra of an agitator to Trump and management, in accordance with a number of lawmakers and senior aides. He retains staunch help from fellow conservatives like Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who additionally voted towards Trump’s megabill earlier this yr.
“I’m a big supporter of Thomas Massie,” Paul instructed reporters in July, in accordance with the Louisville Courier Journal. “He’s a man of principle who votes against the deficit like I do, whether it’s Republicans proposing spending or Democrats.”
Within the House GOP, Massie has gained over some key Trump allies like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who’s forcefully backing his push to launch the Epstein information and has personally spoken to the president concerning the significance of the matter.
Even so, different GOP colleagues working with Massie on the Epstein push mentioned they wished he’d taken a distinct method with Trump.
“I will tell you that I like Thomas on a lot of positions,” mentioned Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, a Florida Republican who has lengthy demanded the Epstein information be launched however has but to signal onto Massie’s push to drive a vote in defiance of the White House. “But I think that the way that this has kind of flushed out between his personal relationship with the president is unfortunate to see unfold.”
Luna declined to say whether or not she’d again Massie’s reelection.
“There’s a way that you can debate and disagree with people, but the moment that you get personal and the moment that you start doing things for reasons other than what you’re telling the public, I think that kind of crosses the Rubicon,” Luna mentioned. “There’s no turning back from that.”
Rep. Jeff Van Drew, a New Jersey Republican who has supported Massie’s invoice however mentioned he won’t go towards his personal management to drive a ground vote, mentioned he wished his colleague had made it a “less confrontational” difficulty.
“I didn’t make that choice. He did,” Van Drew mentioned. “He has chosen his bed. Now he’s gotta lie in it.”
Massie has fended off each earlier challenger in his district, a fiercely unbiased, deeply conservative stretch of Northeastern Kentucky that’s identified to native political operatives as the “Wild West” of the state. It’s additionally an especially costly district for anybody working for workplace: It’s cut up into 4 media markets in three totally different states. Still, senior Republicans imagine Massie might be susceptible given the precise candidate.
“I would not underestimate the president’s grip on the base,” mentioned one senior House GOP lawmaker, talking on situation of anonymity to freely focus on a colleague’s political future. But the member mentioned they nonetheless want a Republican there who can win: “That’s a problem. The candidate matters. Ultimately, it’s not a plebiscite. It’s an election, right? It’s not – do you like this person or not?”
Massie wouldn’t be the primary Republican focused for defeat by Trump. Last March, then-Rep. Bob Good of Virginia was ousted in an ugly primary after sparring with GOP management and backing Trump’s opponent, Ron DeSantis, within the 2024 presidential main.
Some Republicans imagine the Massie vs. MAGA main will likely be even nastier, given the Kentucky congressman’s repeated votes towards Trump priorities — together with his signature tax and spending cuts invoice — and his disparagement over Trump’s dealing with of Epstein.
On the management stage, prime Republicans are sometimes reticent to publicly criticize their very own members. But some, like House GOP Conference Chair Lisa McClain, struck a notice of disappointment about Massie’s rogue push to defy Johnson over the Epstein vote.
“He’s challenged us, and disagreement is not disloyalty. … But at the end of the day, when we decide to call a play, we’ve got to run the play the coach calls,” McClain mentioned.
As for his reelection, McClain mentioned management tends to not become involved in primaries and careworn she merely needs to maintain the GOP majority.
“Whoever is going to stay in that seat and keep that majority, that’s what I want, right?” McClain mentioned. “If Thomas Massie is the best person to do that, then absolutely, I want him to do that, right? I also think it’s up to his voters to decide, not necessarily for me.”
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, the No. 3 Republican, mentioned it was as much as Massie to determine his personal reelection bid.
“I work with every single member of our team,” Emmer instructed NCS when requested about how occasion leaders would deal with the White House’s efforts to oust Massie. “I have to work through their relationships with each other. I have to work through their relationships with their constituents. I leave all of our members to take care of their own business, both in the policy arena and in the campaign.”
Rep. Richard Hudson, the House GOP’s marketing campaign chief, signaled he was staying away from the interior feud as properly.
“My focus is on beating Democrats,” Hudson mentioned. “I don’t get involved in primaries.”
Asked about GOP leaders’ views about his race, Massie shrugged it off.
“I thought about this yesterday in our press conference with the survivors,” Massie mentioned, referring to an emotional, 90-minute occasion the place practically a dozen ladies spoke about how Epstein abused them once they have been youngsters. “My life is difficult in a political sense, but they’re living a nightmare of shame. I think it’s kind of petty for me to complain about some political race that I have to be in when there are other people who are making much greater sacrifices.”