President Donald Trump’s political machine has mobilized to punish congressman Thomas Massie for daring to disagree with the president.
MAGA Kentucky, a pro-Trump super PAC, will begin airing its first attack ad against the Kentucky Republican on Friday, Axios reported.
“What happened to Thomas Massie?” the 30-second spot begins, accusing him of voting against Trump’s various legislative goals.
“And after Trump obliterated Iran’s nuclear weapons program, Massie sided with Democrats and the ayatollah,” it adds, referring to Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei.
The ads will mainly air on Fox News and TV stations in Cincinnati and Louisville, according to Axios, and will also be digitally targeted to Republican voters. It’s the first component of a $1 million ad buy.
“Join President Trump and Fire Thomas Massie,” MAGA Kentucky’s website states, saying the lawmaker “betrayed Kentucky conservatives.”
A representative of Massie did not immediately return a request for comment.
Trump has publicly fumed at Massie and recently cast him out from the MAGA movement for disagreeing with his decision to drop bombs on Iran—an issue that caused a deep rift in his MAGA base.
Massie was also one of just two House Republicans to vote against Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” earning praise from Elon Musk, whose opposition to the legislation helped trigger his explosive falling-out with Trump.
“We are exhausted,” Massie said Sunday, after Trump announced strikes on Iran amid its conflict with Israel. “We are tired from all of these wars, and we’re non-interventionists. I mean, this was one of the promises. I mean, are you going to call President Trump’s campaign an isolationist campaign? What he promised us was, we would put America first.”
Trump was not happy.
“Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky is not MAGA, even though he likes to say he is,” he wrote on Truth Social Sunday. “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,” he added.
Trump said there would be a “wonderful American Patriot” running against Massie in next year’s Republican primary, “and I’ll be out in Kentucky campaigning really hard.”
On the same day, Axios reported that Trump’s allies had launched MAGA Kentucky, a super PAC dedicated to defeating Massie. A statement of organization was filed with the Federal Election Commission on June 19.
Earlier this week, Massie pointed out that Trump used to be a fan of his.
“For those who want to know what @realDonaldTrump really thinks of me, this should clear things up…” he wrote on X, sharing a screenshot of a 2022 Trump endorsement that called him “a conservative warrior” and “first-rate defender of the Constitution.”
He’s poked the bear in various other posts throughout the week, criticizing Trump’s decision to strike Iran.
The post MAGA Launches Full-Scale Attack on Renegade Republican appeared first on The Daily Beast.
