Trump Calls for Rep. Thomas Massie's Removal from Congress

On the eve of Kentucky's May 19 Republican primary, President Donald Trump posted a message aimed squarely at one of his own party's seven-term incumbents: "Bad Congressman Tom Massie voted against Tax Cuts, the Border Wall, our Military and Law Enforcement. Actually, he voted against almost everything that is good. The Worst Republican Congressman in History. Kentucky, vote the bum out on Tuesday" [1]. The attack came less than 48 hours after Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana was eliminated in his own Republican primary — the first GOP senator to lose renomination in nearly a decade [2].

The collision between Trump and Massie has turned a congressional primary in northern Kentucky into a $25-million national spectacle, the most expensive House primary in American history [3]. It has drawn in pro-Israel super PACs, Trump's own political operation, libertarian megadonors, and a retired Navy SEAL challenger — and raised questions that stretch well beyond one district about the nature of dissent inside the modern Republican Party.

The Trigger: A Pattern of Defiance, Not a Single Vote

Trump's campaign against Massie did not begin with a single act of disloyalty. It escalated through a series of votes in 2025 that placed Massie on the wrong side of the president's legislative agenda.

Massie was the lone Republican "no" vote on the continuing resolution to keep the government funded in March 2025, arguing for the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files and opposing what he called reckless spending [4]. He was also the lone Republican "no" on the budget resolution that set the stage for Trump's domestic agenda. And in July 2025, when the House passed the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" — Trump's signature reconciliation package — on a razor-thin 218-214 vote, Massie was one of only two Republicans to vote against it, alongside Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania [5].

Massie's stated rationale was fiscal: "I voted No on final passage because it will significantly increase U.S. budget deficits in the near term, negatively impacting all Americans through sustained inflation and high interest rates" [5]. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated the bill would add $3.4 trillion to the deficit over the next decade [5].

Beyond spending, Massie has also clashed with Trump on foreign policy. He introduced a bipartisan War Powers Resolution challenging the president's authority to order military strikes on Iran without congressional approval, and he has opposed unconditional U.S. military aid to Israel [6]. Trump responded at the National Prayer Breakfast by saying, "We'll get 100% of the vote except for this guy named Thomas Massie," before calling the congressman a "moron" [7].

The Machinery of Removal: Trump's Political Operation

In June 2025, Trump's political team took the extraordinary step of launching "Kentucky MAGA," a super PAC devoted solely to defeating Massie. The PAC was placed under the direction of Trump's top political advisers, Tony Fabrizio and Chris LaCivita [8]. Trump personally endorsed Ed Gallrein, a fifth-generation Kentucky farmer and retired Navy SEAL officer who served 30 years in the armed forces, including deployments with SEAL Team Six. Gallrein received four Bronze Star Medals and two Presidential Unit Citations during his service [9].

The spending has been staggering. According to Axios and FEC filings, an estimated $33.27 million has been spent on the race over two years [3]. Massie's own campaign has spent $5.6 million on advertising, supplemented by $5.5 million from the pro-Massie Kentucky 4th PAC and Kentucky First PAC. On the other side, MAGA KY has spent $5.6 million, the Republican Jewish Coalition $4 million, and AIPAC's United Democracy Project $2.6 million [3].

Source: Axios / FEC filings

Data as of May 11, 2026CSV

Massie has pointed to the involvement of pro-Israel groups as evidence of outside interference, stating that "a foreign lobby has fully funded...my opponent" to a degree "never done in a Republican race ever before" [6]. His opponents counter that Massie's votes against Israel aid make him out of step with the Republican mainstream.

The Cassidy Precedent

The timing of Trump's final push against Massie was not accidental. On May 16, Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana — who voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial in 2021 — was eliminated in the first round of Louisiana's Republican primary. Julia Letlow, who carried Trump's endorsement, and state Treasurer John Fleming advanced to a June 27 runoff [2].

Cassidy's defeat sent a clear signal. He became the first sitting GOP senator to lose renomination in close to a decade, a result that NBC News described as showing "the price of dissent in Trump's Republican Party" [10]. Trump had attacked Cassidy on the morning of the vote as "a disloyal disaster" and "a terrible guy" [11].

Cassidy responded with defiance: "Insults only bother me if they come from somebody of character and integrity. Our country is not about one individual. It is about the welfare of all Americans, and it is about the Constitution" [2].

Republicans close to Trump quickly drew a line from Louisiana to Kentucky. The Washington Examiner characterized the sequence as a "Trump revenge tour" barreling toward Massie [12]. The Louisiana Illuminator reported that Republicans credited Trump for Cassidy's defeat and framed Massie's primary as "the next test" [13].

But the parallels have limits. Cassidy's original sin — voting to convict Trump — was a singular, high-profile act of defiance on the question of Trump's personal culpability for January 6. Massie's dissent is rooted in a broader ideological framework. He votes with his party approximately 90% of the time; it is the remaining 10%, concentrated on spending, foreign policy, and executive authority, that has drawn Trump's wrath [14].

Polling: A Race on a Knife's Edge

The Kentucky 4th District primary has tightened dramatically. An April poll showed Massie ahead by 9 points. By mid-May, a Quantus Insights survey of 908 likely Republican primary voters conducted May 11-12 found Gallrein leading 48.3% to 43.1%, with 7.6% undecided — a net swing of nearly 17 points [15]. Among voters who were not fully committed, 52.4% leaned toward Gallrein, while 23.4% leaned toward Massie [15].

A separate BIG DATA POLL tracking survey released May 15 told a slightly different story, placing Massie at 50.6% and Gallrein at 49.4%. That poll found Massie leading among early voters 57.6% to 42.4%, while Gallrein led among those planning to vote in person on Election Day 52.3% to 47.7% [16].

Prediction markets on Polymarket and Kalshi have reflected the uncertainty, with odds fluctuating daily [17].

The Indiana Template: Trump's Track Record Against Incumbents

The Massie race does not exist in isolation. In Indiana's May 5 primary, Trump-backed challengers defeated six Republican state senators who had voted against a Trump-favored congressional redistricting map [18]. The president had endorsed seven challengers after the Indiana Senate voted down the redistricting bill in December 2025. The primary campaigns drew $13.5 million in broadcast ad spending — a nearly 5,000% increase from the roughly $250,000 spent on Indiana state Senate races in 2024 [18].

The Indiana results, combined with Cassidy's defeat, established a pattern that Brookings described as "intraparty tensions shaping the 2026 midterm primary landscape" [19]. NPR's analysis concluded that the results "show Trump's power over the party" remains strong when he targets incumbents who have crossed him [20].

The question for Kentucky is whether a seven-term U.S. House member with a deep base and robust fundraising operation can withstand the same forces that toppled a Louisiana senator and six Indiana state legislators.

The Ideological Fault Line

The Massie-Trump conflict is not simply a loyalty test. It exposes a genuine ideological fissure within the Republican coalition.

Massie, an MIT graduate first elected in 2012 with Tea Party backing, describes himself as a constitutional conservative. He has worn a ticking "debt clock" on his lapel for years and frames his dissent in terms of fiscal responsibility and limited government [14]. His Heritage Action scorecard has ranged from 71% to 96% across different congressional sessions — consistently conservative, but not uniformly aligned with leadership priorities [21].

The federal debt that Massie cites as his primary concern now stands at $37.64 trillion as of September 2025, according to Treasury fiscal data [22]. Massie's argument is that the "One Big Beautiful Bill" and other Trump-backed legislation accelerate that trajectory.

Source: Treasury Fiscal Data

Data as of Sep 30, 2025CSV

Kentucky State Senator Gex Williams, a Massie supporter, framed the stakes bluntly: "Congress is broken and Massie is the conscience" [14]. Stephen Voss, an associate professor of political science at the University of Kentucky, offered a more detached assessment: "This is really a battle between party unity and ideological purity" [14].

Gallrein and his supporters cast the issue differently. Gallrein has characterized Massie as siding with "radical Democrats" against conservative interests [6]. Trump-aligned ads have attacked Massie's record on military spending and border security, though FactCheck.org found that at least one MAGA-aligned ad "distorts how Massie diverges from Trump" [23].

The fault line extends beyond Massie. Other House Republicans have privately expressed sympathy with his fiscal concerns about the reconciliation bill but voted yes under leadership pressure. The question of how many Republicans share Massie's positions but lack his willingness to vote accordingly is, by its nature, difficult to quantify — but Massie's isolation on recorded votes (often as the sole Republican "no") suggests the answer is: more than the roll call reveals.

Separation of Powers: The Constitutional Question

Trump's campaign to remove a sitting congressman raises constitutional questions that have received less attention than the political horse race.

The Constitution vests the power to seat, discipline, and expel members of Congress exclusively in each chamber. Article I, Section 5 provides that "Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly Behaviour, and, with the Concurrence of two thirds, expel a Member." There is no constitutional mechanism for a president to remove a member of Congress [24].

Trump is not, of course, invoking any formal removal power. His tool is the primary election — pressuring voters to replace a congressman he finds insufficiently loyal. This is constitutionally permissible political speech. But scholars of separation of powers have raised concerns about the broader pattern.

Harvard Kennedy School research has noted the tension between "separation of parties" and "separation of powers," arguing that when party loyalty overrides institutional independence, Congress becomes less able to perform its oversight function — a dynamic that concerns both parties' long-term interests [25]. Massie himself has framed his votes on war powers and executive authority as defending congressional prerogatives that the Constitution assigns to the legislative branch, not the president [6].

The counterargument from Trump's allies is straightforward: primary elections are democracy in action. Voters have the right to replace representatives who do not reflect their priorities, and a president has every right to advocate for candidates who support his agenda. The question is not whether this is legal — it clearly is — but whether the systematic targeting of intraparty dissenters produces a Congress capable of independent judgment.

The Stakes on May 19

As Kentucky voters head to the polls, the race has become a referendum on multiple questions at once: the limits of Trump's political power, the future of fiscal conservatism within the GOP, the role of outside spending in congressional primaries, and the tolerance for dissent within a party that increasingly demands unanimity.

Massie, for his part, has projected calm. CNN reported that he told supporters he is running on his record and trusts Kentucky voters to make their own judgment rather than follow instructions from Washington [7]. One voter quoted in the Christian Science Monitor captured the dilemma facing many in the district: they support Trump and appreciate Massie, and they are being asked to choose [14].

The outcome will be watched far beyond Kentucky. If Gallrein wins, it will confirm that Trump can unseat virtually any Republican incumbent who defies him, further consolidating presidential control over the legislative branch's membership. If Massie survives, it will suggest that there remains space — however narrow — for principled dissent within the Republican Party, even against a president willing to spend tens of millions of dollars to eliminate it.