Trump Promises to Campaign ‘Really Hard’ Against MAGA Defector Thomas Massie

Donald Trump promised to campaign “really hard” for a primary opponent to run against Rep. Thomas Massie after the Kentucky Republican broke with the president over his decision to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities over the weekend.

Trump’s lengthy Truth Social post on Sunday excoriating Massie is just the latest and most intense salvo in an ongoing feud between the two men, who have publicly sparred over a number of issues.

Massie was one of just two Republican “no” votes against Trump’s so-called “big, beautiful bill” in the House, a defection that the president apparently hasn’t forgotten.

“Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky is not MAGA, even though he likes to say he is. Actually, MAGA doesn’t want him, doesn’t know him, and doesn’t respect him. He is a negative force who almost always Votes “NO,” no matter how good something may be,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Sunday, referring to him as “Rand Paul Jr.” — a reference to Massie’s fellow Kentucky libertarian-minded senator, Rand Paul.

“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 continued. “MAGA is not about lazy, grandstanding, nonproductive politicians, of which Thomas Massie is definitely one.”

President Donald Trump announces that the U.S. military struck three Iranian nuclear and military sites Saturday night. Carlos Barria/AP

Trump’s political operation has been speaking with several potential challengers to Massie, according to Axios. Despite being the target of Trump’s ire, in his last two primary elections Massie has cruised to victory by huge margins, beating defamation attorney Todd McMurty and real estate investor Claire Wirth by more than 60 percentage points.

The threat to campaign against him comes just hours after he sat for a series of interviews about Trump’s Iran strikes on the Sunday political talk shows. The Kentucky Republican last week proposed a bipartisan war powers resolution that would have barred the U.S. military from offensive action against Iran without prior authorization from Congress. He joined Rep. Ro Khanna, a Democrat, in authoring the bill.

“I think I represent part of the coalition that elected President Trump,” he said on CBS’ Face the Nation Sunday. “We were tired of endless wars in the Middle East and tired of wars in east eastern Europe. And we were promised that we would put our veterans, our immigration policies and our infrastructure first.”

Massie also appeared on CNN’s Inside Politics, where he said Trump’s strikes “may turn out to be the 2025 version of ‘two weeks to slow the spread,’” a reference to the early public health efforts against COVID-19.

The comments clearly got under Trump’s skin.

“MAGA should drop this pathetic LOSER, Tom Massie, like the plague!” Trump wrote just hours later, calling him a “lightweight.”

“I hope Thomas Massie is enjoying his last term in Congress,” Trump’s deputy chief of staff added on X.

It’s not the first time Trump has gone after Massie. Their feud began in earnest during Trump’s first term when Massie forced an in-person vote on Trump’s COVID-19 relief package in 2020. At the time, Trump called him a “grandstander” and said he should be thrown “out of the Republican Party.”

Massie supported Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, though he eventually endorsed Trump just 11 days before the general election.

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Brett Bachman is a senior editor at NOTUS.