Trump attacks Massie as Republican critic describes ‘desperate’ attempts to oust him from primary | US politics
Two days away from the next big test of Donald Trump’s firm grip on his party, the president on Sunday went head-to-head with his nemesis, Kentucky congressman Thomas Massie, who is fighting for his political life in Tuesday’s Republican primary.
Over an eight-hour period beginning in the early hours of Sunday, Trump mocked Massie, one of very few senior Republicans who dared to challenge him from the bully pulpit at Truth Social. Rumors began that Massie was “the worst and most untrustworthy Republican Congressman in the history of our Country” and by mid-morning a call was made to Kentucky voters to “vote for the bums on Tuesday.”
Massie has been a constant thorn in Trump’s side by voting against the signature tax and spending cuts bill, helping force the justice department to release the Jeffrey Epstein files, and insisting on congressional oversight of military actions in Venezuela and Iran. Now he faces a bitter primary against a Trump-backed rival. Ed Gallrein.
Undeterred by Trump’s vicious attacks, Massie put on a brave face on the political program This Week, which aired Sunday on ABC News. “I’m the only one they can’t bully,” he said, adding: “I’m ahead in the polls and they’re helpless… That’s why the president is losing sleep and tweeting about it.”
In fact, Massie’s position is not as comfortable as one might think. An independent survey by Quantus Insights Last week, Gallrein, a farmer and retired U.S. Navy SEAL, led the incumbent with 48% to 43%, with 8% undecided.
Massie insisted to CNN that he was buoyed by support from anti-abortion and gun rights groups in the state and millions of dollars in donations from grassroots voters. In response, he accused super-rich donors like Miriam Adelson and Paul Singer and what he called the “Israel lobby” of bombarding Kentucky with money to unseat him.
The prevailing political wind is firmly in Trump’s direction, as he continues to destroy any sign of autonomous thought within his party. On Saturday, Republican senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana was ousted in the primary as punishment for voting to convict Trump in the 2021 impeachment trial for the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Trump-backed U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow and state comptroller John Fleming edged out Cassidy and will now compete in runoff elections on June 27.
Although Cassidy did not mention the president by name, he left little to the imagination in his concession speech. “If someone tries to control others by using tools of power, it is to serve themselves, not to serve us, and that person is unfit to be a leader,” he said.
Cassidy’s removal means that only two of the seven Republican senators who voted to convict Trump in the Jan. 6 impeachment trial remain in place: Susan Collins, who is facing a tough reelection fight in Maine, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. Of the 10 Republican House members who voted to impeach Trump in 2021, only one remains eligible to run for re-election in November: California’s David Valadao.
“The headline is: Trump is strong,” Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator from South Carolina, told NBC News. Meet the Press. “Bill Cassidy lost because he tried to destroy Trump, Massie will lose because he tried to destroy the agenda. If you try to destroy him, you’re destroyed; that’s the outcome.”
Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the US House of Representatives, expressed the same effective threat against opponents in his party, but in softer language, in an interview with Fox News Sunday. Trump’s impact on elections across the country showed that he has the “strongest support in the history of politics.”
Trump’s ability to spread fear within his party and effectively silence any internal dissent runs counter to his overall standing with the American people. The US-Israeli war with Iran and the resulting economic impacts, including rising fuel prices, are having negative effects.
a new CBS News poll It emerged that approval of Trump’s handling of inflation among Republicans fell to 63% from 74% in March. When asked how they felt about Trump’s approach to the economy, 70 percent of respondents said they were disappointed or angry.
Trump’s unpopularity among American voters as a whole and his iron grip on his party are being read by Democrats as a potential opportunity. Pete Buttigieg, the former US transportation secretary under Joe Biden and a 2028 presidential candidate, told CNN’s State of the Union that he sees a “big opening for the Democrats.”
Under Trump’s unwavering control, “we’re seeing more and more extreme candidates come forward in House and Senate races,” Buttigieg said. “The Republican party is becoming less and less organized around conservative principles, more and more organized around one man, and when that man becomes extremely unpopular, they find that they are having a very difficult time convincing the rest of America to vote for them.”
