Who Is Thomas Massie? Trump Seeks to Oust Republican Congressman

“MAGA doesn’t want him, doesn’t know him, and doesn’t respect him,” President Donald Trump wrote in a lengthy tirade against Thomas Massie, a Republican congressman from Kentucky who has criticized the President over a number of issues from war with Iran to the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill.

“He is a negative force who almost always Votes ‘NO,’ no matter how good something may be. He’s a simple minded ‘grandstander’ who thinks it’s good politics for Iran to have the highest level Nuclear weapon, while at the same time yelling ‘DEATH TO AMERICA’ at every chance they get,” Trump posted on Sunday.

He added: “MAGA should drop this pathetic LOSER, Tom Massie, like the plague!”

Massie responded with a tongue-in-cheek post on X that the President “declared so much War on me today it should require an Act of Congress.” Massie joined last week with a number of Democratic lawmakers to raise the alarm over potential U.S. military intervention in the Middle East without constitutionally-mandated congressional authorization.

While Massie won’t face a reelection contest until 2026, Trump has already unveiled a plan to challenge him and further enforce loyalty within the GOP ranks.

“The good news is that we will have a wonderful American Patriot running against him in the Republican Primary, and I’ll be out in Kentucky campaigning really hard,” Trump added, without naming a prospective primary opponent. “MAGA is not about lazy, grandstanding, nonproductive politicians, of which Thomas Massie is definitely one.”

Massie, who is known for his outspoken libertarian views, has survived primary challenges before and told Axios, which reported on the effort to oust him, that “any serious person considering running should spend money on an independent poll before letting swampy consultants take them for an embarrassing ride.”

Who is Thomas Massie?

Massie, 54, was born in West Virginia and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in engineering from MIT in the 1990s before turning to local politics in 2010, when he ran and won the race for Judge Executive of Lewis County, Ky., amid the Tea Party wave.

In 2012, after then-Rep. Geoff Davis announced his retirement in Kentucky’s deep-red 4th congressional district, Massie, who described himself as a “constitutional conservative,” won the Republican primary in a landslide. When Davis resigned early, Massie won the same-day special election and general election to succeed him, taking office two months earlier than his fellow freshmen representatives elected in 2012.

One of Massie’s first moves was to vote in January 2013 against party leader John Boehner for Speaker, opting instead to vote for fellow libertarian Justin Amash. (Boehner narrowly won the speakership but would go on to resign in 2015. Amash would go on to not run for reelection in 2020 and temporarily leave the Republican Party after earning Trump’s wrath for consistent criticism of the President and supporting his impeachment.)

Since then, Massie has made a name for himself by regularly voting against bills, often breaking with his caucus and sometimes siding with Democrats. In 2013, Politico dubbed him “Mr. No.”

In 2016, Massie said he would vote for Trump but do everything he could to “rein him in” if he acts unconstitutionally. In 2017, Massie tried to explain how the same movement that propelled him into office could also propel someone like Trump, telling the Washington Examiner: “All this time, I thought they were voting for libertarian Republicans. But after some soul searching I realized when they voted for Rand and Ron [Paul] and me in these primaries, they weren’t voting for libertarian ideas—they were voting for the craziest son of a b—– in the race. And Donald Trump won best in class.”

During Trump’s first term, Massie was among a small group of Republicans who joined Democrats in trying to override Trump’s veto of legislation that would block his national emergency declaration at the border in 2019. That same year, he was the sole Republican to vote against a resolution opposing the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement targeting Israel, and he was the sole no-vote across both parties on the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act.

In March 2020, Trump called Massie a “third rate Grandstander” and urged Republicans to throw him out of the party after the congressman tried to force a roll-call vote on a $2 trillion pandemic relief package. The stunt earned rebuke from both sides of the aisle, with former Democratic presidential nominee and former Secretary of State John Kerry posting on social media: “Breaking news: Congressman Massie has tested positive for being an a–hole. He must be quarantined to prevent the spread of his massive stupidity.”

But in a U-turn, Trump endorsed Massie in 2022, calling him “a first-rate Defender of the Constitution.”

In 2022, Massie was the lone “No” vote on a symbolic measure condemning antisemitism, a move he defended as a stance against “censorship” but critics described as “performative contrarianism.”

Why Trump wants Massie out

Massie was once again on Trump’s bad side in 2023 when Trump shared posts on his Truth Social platform that called the congressman a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” and said he “helped destroy the Tea Party and now he’s trying to destroy MAGA.”

That didn’t stop Massie from endorsing Trump in the 2024 general election after previously backing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the Republican primary.

But Trump finally had enough of Massie in March, when Massie voted against a continuing resolution to fund the federal government until September as Republicans worked to pass Trump’s massive tax-and-spending legislative package, the “One Big Beautiful Bill” (OBBB).

The President took to Truth Social to appeal for a primary candidate to challenge Massie in 2026: “HE SHOULD BE PRIMARIED, and I will lead the charge against him. He’s just another GRANDSTANDER, who’s too much trouble, and not worth the fight. He reminds me of Liz Chaney [sic] before her historic, record breaking fall (loss!). The people of Kentucky won’t stand for it, just watch. DO I HAVE ANY TAKERS???”

Massie brushed off the criticism, telling Politico: “I had the Trump antibodies for a while — I needed a booster.” He said at the time that he had no intention to cave to Trump’s pressure and believed the President’s grudge would “blow over.” 

When Massie continued to voice loud opposition to the OBBB, which is estimated to add trillions to the national debt, Trump said of Massie in May: “He doesn’t understand government” and “should be voted out of office.”

The OBBB ultimately passed in the House in May, when Massie was one of two Republicans in the lower chamber to vote against it. It has yet to pass in the Senate, especially after Massie found a sympathizer to his concerns about the bill’s impact on the deficit in tech billionaire Elon Musk.

Trump’s latest missive against Massie came as Massie has become a leading voice against military intervention in Iran.

Days after Israel launched an attack on Iran, Massie cosponsored a war powers resolution with Rep. Ro Khanna (D, Calif.) aimed at blocking the U.S. government from engaging in “unauthorized hostilities.”

After Trump revealed U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, Massie posted on X: “This is not Constitutional.” 

While some have categorized Massie’s wing of the MAGA base when it comes to the war as “isolationists,” Massie told CBS on Sunday that he rejects the label, preferring “non-interventionists.”

“We are exhausted,” he said. “We are tired from all of these wars.”

How is Trump planning to beat Massie?

Trump is dedicating campaign firepower to oust Massie.

Axios reported that Trump’s senior political advisers, Tony Fabrizio and Chris LaCivita, will launch a political action committee devoted to defeating Massie in the May 2026 primary.

LaCivita said the PAC will spend “whatever it takes” to defeat Massie, who according to the team’s internal polling was lagging behind the President in terms of support.

As of now, only one candidate, Niki Lee Ethington, has announced that she will vie for Massie’s congressional seat. Other names being floated, per Axios, are state senator Aaron Reed and state representative Kimberly Moser.

“Massie’s long-time opposition to President Trump’s working family tax cuts—and really anything to do with President Trump—is coming to an end,” LaCivita said in a statement. “Thomas ‘Little Boy’ Massie will be fired.”