“Don’t cut off your nose to spite your face” is an old saying. President Trump ignored that in engineering the defeat Tuesday of Rep. Thomas Massie in a Republican primary in Kentucky. Trump-backed candidate Ed Gallrein won, 55% to 45%.
In a March post on Truth Social, the president branded Massie “the WORST Republican Congressman in the long and fabled history of the United States Congress.” More than $32 million was spent by both sides in a fratricidal waste of money needed to reduce Republican losses in the House nationwide this November.
Seldom has revenge been so costly. The more House seats Democrats win, the more times they will impeach Trump when they take over in January.
Massie actually was a big supporter of the Trump’s “America First” agenda. “It’s only the 10% of the time they’re mad about,” he said in his concession speech. “When I won’t vote for a war, when I won’t vote for warrantless spying and when I won’t vote to bankrupt the country.”
Those issues actually were Trump’s issues in 2024. It’s Massie who stayed loyal to the idea of putting America first, while Trump has betrayed his 2024 platform.
Then there’s the Epstein Files, which really enraged Trump. In 2024, Trump promised to release them. In 2025, he refused to do so – until Massie sponsored legislation forcing their release.
Farmer and friend Joel Salatin blogged, “Massie, like Congressman Ron Paul before him, could not be bought. And Washington, both Republicans and Democrats, cannot abide partners who refuse to be bought.” Massie’s Epstein “transparency bill took out two dozen CEOs, including the CEO of the World Economic Forum, an ambassador, a prince and a c.”
Here are just a couple of facts showing how Trump and his allies are shrugging off warnings about a November debacle.
Check the Big Data Poll from May 15 of Republican voters in Kentucky House District 4. Here are the percentages backing Massie. Generation Z: 81.5%. Millennials: 68.6%. Generation X: 53%. Boomers: 38%. That is, only Boomers, who vote in the largest numbers, went for the Trump-backed Gallrein, at 62%.
A May 20 national poll on Fox News, his favorite network, found just 39% of Americans approve of Trump’s overall performance, 38% on foreign policy, 29% on the economy and 24% on inflation.
A May 20 VoteHub poll found a national “generic congressional ballot” scored a Democratic candidate +7.5 percentage points above a Republican.
Massie’s district is a safe Republican seat. In November, Gallrein will win easily. But in most districts across the country, it won’t be just Republican Boomers who decide elections, but all ages and all voters, including Democrats and independents.
Certainly, Democrats have their own problems. But when people can’t afford gas, food or diapers, they take it out on the ruling party.
It’s just getting worse for Trump. The day before Massie’s defeat, the U.S. Labor Department reported April producer prices jumped 6% from a year earlier, a harbinger of future high inflation for consumers. A friend in the construction industry confirmed they’re hit because higher commodity prices are squeezing operating margins.
When a reporter asked on May 19 about high gas prices, Trump said it was “peanuts.” In numerous ads this November, Democrats will turn that into his “let them eat cake” moment.
Trump may find out, if you jettison political allies, and are left only with sycophants. When you need your friends the most, you don’t have any.
John Seiler is on the Editorial Board of the SCNG