Trump Endorses Primary Challenger for Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie
“should he decide to challenge Massie, Captain Ed Gallrein has my Complete and Total Endorsement”
President Trump and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) have been at odds a few times over the years. Perhaps most recently, when Massie opposed the ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ and the airstrike on Iran.
It looks like Trump may have gotten tired of dealing with him because he is now endorsing a primary challenger for him.
President Trump endorses Thomas Massie’s primary challenger. pic.twitter.com/DwOm1DlNml
— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) October 19, 2025
The Hill reports:
Trump endorses potential challenger to Massie in 2026 race
President Trump on Friday endorsed a potential challenger to Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who has tussled with the GOP over the last several months.
Trump threw his full support behind Ed Gallrein as a contender in Kentucky’s 2026 GOP primary.
“I hope Ed gets into the Race against Massie, who is now polling at about 9% because the Great People of Kentucky are wise to him — He only votes against the Republican Party, making life very easy for the Radical Left,” the president wrote in a Friday post on Truth Social.
“Unlike ‘lightweight’ Massie, a totally ineffective LOSER who has failed us so badly, CAPTAIN ED GALLREIN IS A WINNER WHO WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN,” he added.
Gallrein has not officially announced an intention to run for the Kentucky congressional seat after losing a campaign for state senate late last year.
Still, Trump said, “should he decide to challenge Massie, Captain Ed Gallrein has my Complete and Total Endorsement.”
Massie is not taking the news well. You need look no further than his response to see that.
From Politico:
Massie, in response to Trump’s endorsement, called Gallrein a “failed candidate and establishment hack.”
“After having been rejected by every elected official in the 4th District, Trump’s consultants clearly pushed the panic button with their choice of failed candidate and establishment hack Ed Gallrein,” Massie told POLITICO. “Ed’s been begging them to pick him for over three months now.”
Trump’s endorsement of Gallrein — which included a photo of himself and Gallrein holding red MAGA hats in the Oval Office — comes as the president has been publicly teasing his plans to help unseat Massie for months. Two of his top political hands launched a super PAC, MAGA KY, that has already spent $1.8 million trying to take Massie down.
An October 16th report from the Washington Free Beacon seems to indicate that there could be more to the story here:
Strange Bedfellows: Meet the PAC Working to Reelect Thomas Massie—And Partnering With the DSA to Fight ICE
Earlier this year, in June, Integrity Political Action Committee (IPAC) announced a “new coalition” with the Democratic Socialists of America aimed at fighting ICE’s “crackdown on immigration violations.” Two months later, an unlikely figure traveled to the area to meet with IPAC’s leaders: Rep. Thomas Massie, the man who describes himself as “Kentucky’s most conservative congressman.”
A social media post shows Massie smiling alongside IPAC chairman Rafed Aljoboury in what appears to be a private home in Dunmore, Pa., a Scranton suburb. One week earlier, Aljoboury contributed $500 to Massie’s campaign, according to campaign finance disclosure. Aljoboury spoke at the press conference where IPAC launched its partnership with the DSA and compared ICE agents to Nazis.
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Comments
“I hope Ed gets into the Race against Massie, who is now polling at about 9% because the Great People of Kentucky are wise to him”
These the same Great People of Kentucky who keep n sending Mitch McConnell back?
Yeah, I don’t think so.
Massie has had some good positions on different issues but to be a member of 218 team means your personal ideas and beliefs have to come second to the team. He doesn’t play that way, sort of,like Rand Paul. The job of all Congressmen is to come together after debate on issues for the country. Massie seems to think his job is to be a one man stand against anything he doesn’t agree with.
In a parliamentary system sure. We don’t have that system. Each Congressman is supposed to vote their own conscience while representing the constituents of their CD. As for ‘coming together’ that sounds great until we take a moment to realize it is another way of describing the typical DC establishment ‘go along/get along’ which has put our National Debt at $37.5 Trillion. Our interest cost last FY was $1.2 Trillion, which is $300 Billion more than the DoD budget or as a % it right at 1/3 more $ spent on servicing the interest expense on the National Debt than we depend on National Defense.
I am not doing this to be cruel but you mean like when Donald J Trump needed yes votes in order to avoid giving a massive tax hike to this country without also providing a subsidy to blue states he had correctly revoked?
The only thing he has ever done is grandstand when his party and country needs him to get policies closer to what he claims his principles are he votes with the Democrats.
The reason it is exposed now is because the Republican majority is tiny.
Why is there no “Like” button Professor Jacobson! 🙂
What’s the matter, Massie?
What happened to your stupid Epstein ‘witnesses’ that you stood in front of a mic while they waved a bunch of anti-Trump signs around?
What happened to you reading their accusations on the Congressional record?
Massie is such a fraud, it just shocks me that so many people have been taken by his BS for so long.
He ain’t wrong about the threat of our growing National Debt or the abject failure of the HoR to deliver on passage of the dozen separate appropriations bills nor the annual Kabuki dance in DC where the leadership offers up annual promises to ‘fix it next time, but for now we gotta pass this year’s budget’. That’s how our National Debt grew to $37.5 Trillion and growing. Sooner or later the bond market is gonna demand much higher rates of return to keep buying US Debt, foreign central banks will reduce their holdings of US Debt and the price of gold will go higher. The last two are already occurring and when normies/average folks make a reallocation to rebalance their investment mix ….US Debt gonna have to offer much higher rates.
And he was right on the BBB and the Iran bombings. The BBB is a disgrace.
I’m in at least two minds about this. I have concerns about Massie. But one thing is certain: “weak”, “pathetic”, and “RINO” are the very last terms that are appropriate for him. He is in many respects one of the best, strongest, and most courageous Congressmen we have.
And to claim that “he only votes against the Republican Party” is an outright lie.
I actually like Massie most of the time but he and Rand Paul and a couple others are way too willing to kill a bill that cuts 1 trillion from the budget because they think it should cut 2 trillion. I completely agree the 2 trillion is necessary but if you do not have the votes to pass that cut then take the cut that will pass. Sure argue we need to cut more, vote for cutting more, but when it comes right down to it sometimes they cause us to not cut anything because they feel we did not cut enough.
Worse than that. There have been multiple times that they have made a bill SPEND MORE because they refused to negotiate, forcing them to put a ton more spending in to bribe the RINOs.
They have never cut a single dollar from the budget, and actively made budgets WORSE by refusing to negotiate.
An alternative to working with rinos who want to spend ‘more’ would be to work with those who want to spend ‘less’ to get their votes instead.
Lets look at the current situation. Only 3 or 4 of the 12 separate annual funding bills have passed the HoR. Why? Easy, the leadership didn’t want them brought to the floor for a vote. Instead of the HoR passing the individual bills and sending them to the Senate the leadership prefer to create a situation where a CR is needed. They want a ‘crisis’ so that they can have cover to ram through a single boondoggle spending bill v do the politically hard heavy lifting on 12 separate bills.
FWIW a ‘cut’ in spending isn’t a reduction in rate of the growth of spending but rather a simple matter of spending less this year than last year. Until we reject the DC cabal definition of ‘cut’ and return to reality based definitions we won’t ‘cut’ spending.
I’d propose simply returning to pre Covid spending levels (inflation adjusted) but the big spenders in DC won’t do it even though that would get us not just to a balanced budget but with a surplus.
Any conservative Congressman has a very tough job. Vote for the worst thing for the Country, (usually the Dem policy), a better thing for the Country, (usually the Rep Policy), or the best thing for the Country, (usually only a handful who support it). If only a handful support the best policy for the Country, you have failed to convince enough others and voting for it will actually hurt the Country. This is what I think he does all the time, which is a big FAIL.
Massie is in no danger.
Yes, he fights the GOP, rino and MAGA alike on issues where he takes a harder stand.
And let’s be honest,. we want blood on the Epstein thing–not whateverthehell thiis is we’re getting. Massie sees that–and if he can get the left to demand their own beheading why is that bad?
The right doesn’t march in lockstep. And that’s a good thing. Because, if it did, it would BE the left.
And then where would we be?