In northern Kentucky, in this part of America wedged between the Ohio River and the conservative suburbs of Cincinnati, voters in the 4th district spent months watching, mesmerized, the repetitive television ads. Donald Trump denounced an elected official as disloyal. Former veterans in uniform accused Thomas Massie of betraying the Maga movement. Local channels were no longer broadcasting much else. Last night, Massie lost his Republican primary in Kentucky. Fourteen years in Congress and swept away by Ed Gallrein, a former Navy SEAL, almost unknown but personally supported by Trump. Massie, an MIT-trained engineer, a libertarian whose obsession is controlling public spending, had committed the unforgivable: questioning the White House on the federal budget, criticizing the war against Iran, and especially delving into the Epstein files.
The impact extended far beyond the Midwest. Massie was not an obscure figure from the American heartland. For fourteen years, he was a national figure in the Republican Party, the type of official that East Coast journalists call at midnight when they want a Republican voice critical of Trump, someone who was not fond of the White House’s wording, especially on foreign policy. Between renegade and free man. Popular beyond his district, respected in his party.
To defeat him, it took $32 million. In this solidly Republican district, where the real issue was not the November election but Massie’s political survival, the most expensive House of Representatives primary in American history was played out. Trump wanted a show of strength, an exemplary punishment. He got it.
A traitor according to Trump
For months, the president had made Massie a personal target. Trump had branded him as a traitor. On his own network, Truth Social, he called him “idiot,” “small fry,” “the worst Republican official in Congressional history.” Pete Hegseth, chief of the Pentagon, even came to campaign against him in Kentucky, a rare move for an acting Secretary of War.
Trump put his name in the case and his reputation as a kingmaker. He especially put money – or rather, let others put it for him. Pro-Trump groups and several pro-Israeli organizations (including AIPAC, the Republican Jewish Coalition) injected millions to crush the incumbent representative. Several billionaires, including fund manager Paul Singer and Miriam Adelson, widow of the donor Sheldon Adelson, funded the Trumpist super PAC “Maga KY,” specifically to take down Massie.
Trump particularly showed that no sympathy capital protects a Republican in open conflict with him. Trump, whom many observers thought had lost control of the Republicans, methodically locked down the GOP. Republicans who had challenged him after January 6th, or on certain sensitive votes, fell one after the other. On Saturday, Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy (one of the seven Republicans who voted for Trump’s conviction during his impeachment following the Capitol assault) finished third in his primary with less than 25% of the votes. Eliminated, humiliated!
Representative Lauren Boebert, until now a radical figure of the Maga movement, sometimes to the point of caricature, dared to defy Trump by campaigning for Massie in Kentucky. The response was immediate: Trump launched a call on Truth Social for candidates to primary against her in her own Colorado district. Boebert responded that she had no regrets: “I knew the risks. I remain and will remain America First, America Always, and Maga.”
It would be wrong to see Massie’s fall as that of a whimsical libertarian. On guns or immigration, he voted like a staunch conservative. But in the Trump version of the GOP, that is not always enough. In Kentucky, Trump mainly showed that no sympathy capital, even after fourteen years in Congress, now protects a Republican in open conflict with him.
