Can this Republican withstand Trump’s wrath?

Added: 2026-05-20

[00:00:00]He is the worst person. His name is What the hell? How did he ever end up in Kentucky? His name is Thomas Massie, and Donald Trump can't stop talking about him.

[00:00:11]>> Thomas Massie, [music] there's something wrong with him. And Tom Massie in Congress is terrible. He's just terrible, terrible person. See, even though Thomas Massie is one of the most conservative Republicans in Congress from a solidly red district in Kentucky, his position [music] in Congress is on thin ice. Trump has been bashing him during public appearances, and the Republican Party is not coming to his defense. During a local party annual dinner, Massie was awkwardly removed from the stage.

[00:00:39]>> The chain of command does not go to the commander-in-chief. When you are a congressman, you work not for the speaker of the house.

[00:00:50]So, how did Massie earn the ire of so many people in his own party? Well, he forced the Justice Department to release the Epstein files. The speaker, the attorney general, the FBI director, the president, the vice president could have saved us all this time and an embarrassment, frankly, for our own party if they'd just done the right thing 4 months ago. He was one of only two Republicans in the House to vote [music] against Trump's one big beautiful bill.

[00:01:15]This bill is a debt bomb ticking. If something is beautiful, you don't do it after midnight. And the final straw, publicly denouncing last year's bombing in Iran. There were no imminent [music] threat to the United States. So, Thomas Massie is an interesting guy. He's kind of a nerd. He went to MIT. He's ridiculously smart. He calls himself the greenest member of Congress because his house is fully solar-powered, and he hooked the solar panels up to a crashed Tesla battery so that he hasn't paid a utility bill in like 20 years. Massie basically lived in congressional parking lot number 98, [music] I think it was, in his F-250 that he put a camper on the back of and he plugged it into an electric car charging station so he could run air conditioning through it.

[00:02:05]>> It's got a shower, bathroom, stove, and a fridge.

[00:02:08]>> super when I was in there. That living arrangement in there, I could have definitely cozied up. It felt very cool.

[00:02:13]The milk felt cold in there. We had a little cup of milk >> milk.

[00:02:16]>> Yeah.

[00:02:16]>> [laughter] >> Yeah, yeah. I'm sure. Hopefully.

[00:02:18]>> Don't tell anybody across state lines with that.

[00:02:20]>> Massie's cult following might not be enough to get him elected to another term. Last year, Massie made Trump so angry that Trump decided to organize a primary challenge against him.

[00:02:31]>> Ed, would you come up for a minute?

[00:02:32]Trump is urging Republicans to vote for his hand-picked candidate, a former Navy SEAL named Ed Gallrein.

[00:02:41]Mr. President, welcome to Kentucky and thanks for coming to the heartland. But if Massie pulls this off and wins the race, we may see other Republicans join him and start to challenge Trump's agenda in Congress.