President Donald Trump declared on Sunday that the “Make America Great Again” movement should cut any ties with Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) on Sunday after the congressman decried this weekend’s U.S. military strikes on nuclear facilities in Iran and revealed that he will hit the campaign trail next year to support a primary challenger.
The comments mark an escalation in the intra-party war of words after Trump called Massie a “grandstander” earlier this year for opposing the “One Big, Beautiful Bill” making its way through Congress and urged voters to kick the Kentucky Republican out from his House seat.
“Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky is not MAGA, even though he likes to say he is. 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,” Trump said in a Truth Social post. “He’s a simple minded ‘grandstander’ who thinks it’s good politics for Iran to have the highest level Nuclear weapon, while at the same time yelling ‘DEATH TO AMERICA’ at every chance they get.”
Massie claims the attack on Iran was “unconstitutional” because Congress did not authorize military force ahead of time. Prior to the strikes, the Kentucky Republican put forward a war powers resolution in the House that elicited the support of many Democrats, including leftist “Squad” members.
“When two countries are bombing each other daily in a hot war, and a third country joins the bombing, that’s an act of war,” Massie said on X, alluding to the conflict between Israel and Iran. “I’m amazed at the mental gymnastics being undertaken by neocons in DC (and their social media bots) to say we aren’t at war… so they can make war.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) defended Trump’s decision to launch an operation to destroy three facilities in Iran this weekend in a bid to stop that country from being able to create nuclear weapons.
“The President made the right call, and did what he needed to do. Leaders in Congress were aware of the urgency of this situation and the Commander-in-Chief evaluated that the imminent danger outweighed the time it would take for Congress to act,” Johnson said on X. “The world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism, which chants ‘Death to America,’ simply could not be allowed the opportunity to obtain and use nuclear weapons. The President fully respects the Article I power of Congress, and tonight’s necessary, limited, and targeted strike follows the history and tradition of similar military actions under presidents of both parties.”
Massie shot back, asking why Johnson did not call Congress back from “vacation” to vote on military action “if there was a serious threat” to the United States. “I introduced a War Powers Resolution on Tuesday, while Congress was on vacation. We would have had plenty of time to debate and vote on this,” he added.
In his post on Truth Social, Trump compared Massie to Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), another Republican lawmaker who has shown a willingness to break with the “MAGA” line.
“Massie is weak, ineffective, and votes ‘NO’ on virtually everything put before him (Rand Paul, Jr.), no matter how good something may be,” Trump said. “He is disrespectful to our great military, and all that they stand for, not even acknowledging their brilliance and bravery in yesterday’s attack, which was a total and complete WIN. Massie should drop his fake act and start putting America First, but he doesn’t know how to get there — he doesn’t have a clue!”
After noting how Massie will “undoubtedly” again vote against the “One Big, Beautiful Bill,” which will likely need to be approved by the House a second time with the changes being implemented by the Senate, Trump pledged to help defeat the congressman in next year’s midterm elections.
“MAGA should drop this pathetic LOSER, Tom Massie, like the plague!” Trump said. “The good news is that we will have a wonderful American Patriot running against him in the Republican Primary, and I’ll be out in Kentucky campaigning really hard. MAGA is not about lazy, grandstanding, nonproductive politicians, of which Thomas Massie is definitely one. Thank you to our incredible military for the AMAZING job they did last night. It was really SPECIAL!!! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.”
Axios reported later on Sunday that Trump’s team was launching a super PAC focused on getting Massie defeated in the May 2026 primary. The news outlet said the group is called Kentucky MAGA and led by the President’s senior political advisers Tony Fabrizio and Chris LaCivita.
In a post on X, Massie acknowledged Trump’s pledge to back a primary challenger and asked people to support his re-election campaign.