Trump imposes his will in Kentucky as rebel Thomas Massie loses most expensive primary in history
Ed Gallrein, a former Navy SEAL, defeated the libertarian congressman who opposes war with Iran and forced the White House to release the Epstein files
Donald Trump wants a party in his own image and likeness. He does not tolerate dissent. The president of the United States enforces his will with an iron fist to control Republicans. He has gradually sidelined every rebellious congressman and senator who ignored his orders or opposed his wishes. This Tuesday he offered another example. Ed Gallrein, a nondescript 68-year-old farmer and former member of the Navy SEALs who ran a low-key campaign, defeated Thomas Massie, the Republican congressman who had challenged Trump.
Gallrein, a man of limited charisma and with no gift for oratory, had the president’s explicit backing. In the three days before the election alone, Trump posted more than a dozen messages criticizing Massie on his social network, Truth.
The Republican magnate mobilized his electoral machine to direct funding to his candidate’s campaign in Kentucky. He worked intensively to finish off Massie, a popular libertarian congressman who had held a House seat since 2012. The Trump-backed political committee raised more than $7 million for Gallrein, to which another $9 million from the pro-Israel lobby — eager to see Massie out — was added. In total, Trump’s candidate benefited from a budget exceeding $18 million when other private donations are included. That money helped win the primary through an intense smear campaign against his rival and heavy self-promotion. Massie, for his part, raised just over $13 million for what became the most expensive House primary in history.
After seven consecutive terms, Massie, an eccentric politician with an engineering degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), is now facing his final months as a representative. The Republican, who arrived at the Capitol in 2012 with Tea Party backing, now finds himself sidelined by the MAGA current — a curious paradox that reflects the tenor of the times.
Massie had become a thorn in Trump’s side. Of libertarian bent, he is a staunch opponent of debt, which led him to oppose the most ambitious bill Trump has passed to date, the Big Beautiful Bill Act, which ballooned the defense budget and enacted a slew of tax cuts for large corporations.
He also led a parliamentary initiative to declassify Jeffrey Epstein’s files, despite the president’s directive within his party to avoid the matter. Massie joined other party colleagues and Democrats to pass the motion that forced the White House to publish all the documents pertaining to the predator, who for many years had been a friend of Trump.
The politician, who lives on a farm he built himself in the mountains near the Appalachians, has been a firm opponent of war with Iran. He has sought to advance measures in Congress against U.S. intervention abroad and against aid to Israel, which earned him the enmity of the pro-Israel lobby.
For all these reasons, the U.S. president declared political war on him. Trump plunged into his party’s primaries to pick the candidate for Kentucky’s 4th District — the name that will face Democrats in the midterm elections to be held in November.
Trump pulled every lever at his disposal to force Massie’s defeat. A few weeks ago he visited Kentucky to campaign against him. Last week, amid the war with Iran, he sent Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to back Gallrein.
Gallrein’s victory must be credited to Trump, who once again demonstrated the iron control he exerts over the Republican Party, where he prefers politicians who pledge loyalty to the leader above all else. Last Saturday he also managed to dispose of Republican Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, another internal ‘enemy.’ Cassidy was one of the Republican senators who, in 2021, voted in favor of the impeachment trial to remove Trump for his role in the January 6, 2021, Capitol assault. On Saturday, Cassidy lost the primary to Trump’s chosen candidate in Louisiana. The president also crushed legislators who disobeyed him in Indiana when he ordered the redrawing of electoral districts to gain advantage. Two weeks ago, in other Indiana state Senate primaries, he managed to see the majority of his seven candidates (at least five) win against those who ignored his orders.
This appetite for controlling the party could hurt him in the upcoming elections. He has chosen more pliable and radical candidates who help him consolidate his MAGA base, but who may alienate other sectors and will certainly mobilize Democrats.
Farewell to the long-serving McConnell
Another noteworthy electoral contest held Tuesday in Kentucky concerned the Republican primary to replace veteran senator Mitch McConnell. The winner will be virtually guaranteed the seat in the midterm elections next November in a historically conservative state. In this race Trump’s candidate prevailed as well: Andy Barr, a Republican member of the House of Representatives, who will most likely vacate his seat this fall to take a Senate seat.
McConnell, who was among the Republicans who condemned Trump’s role in the Capitol assault, is retiring after seven terms. He is one of the most veteran and long-serving politicians in the Capitol, having been both minority and majority leader during different legislative periods, and holds the record for the longest-serving party leader in the Senate in U.S. history. But Trump has not forgiven him for his boldness in 2021, when McConnell said the president was “practically and morally responsible” for the January 6 Capitol attack. Although McConnell later supported Trump’s candidacy, he came close to backing impeachment against the president — a move that could have changed the course of history.
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