A new documentary about Congressman Thomas Massie suggests that the rogue Republican from the hills of Kentucky is the real America First deal — not President Donald Trump.
Thomas Massie’s America First, a short film by Tom Woods & Dan Smotz, debuted Wednesday across internet platforms. It aims to draw a distinction between Massie and the man who’s trying to get him fired in next year’s primary. Massie, the movie implies, is more MAGA than Trump.
The documentary begins by highlighting the difference between Democrats and Republicans. According to a collage of Massie statements, Republicans feign concern about the “totalitarian state that the bureaucrats are pushing on us” but nonetheless remain complicit in its buildup, whereas Democrats openly support tyranny. It’s all “political theater, folks,” a Massie voice-over says. The politicians stage “fake fights” to distract from the deals they make in “smoke-filled back rooms.”
The video also features Massie’s lone opposition to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, a $2 trillion spending package essentially paid out for Americans to stay home in 2020. Trump urged Congress to pass it, which it did. Massie warned then it would trigger inflation and create a massive wealth transfer from the middle class to the already wealthy. He was right.
Woods and Smotz hit Trump hard on the Covid-19 injections. “Today our nation has achieved a medical miracle. … Operation Warp Speed was considered one of the most incredible things ever done in this country,” the president says, praising the expedient rollout of the mRNA Covid-19 injection. The moviemakers contrast Trump’s comments with Massie’s at the time:
Well first of all, it’s none of your business but I’m going tell you. I’m not vaccinated and until there’s some science — by the way I have a master of science degree from MIT — I’m not a virologist but I can read data.
Clips of Massie taking on former Attorney General Merrick Garland over the government’s refusal to exempt federal workers from vaccine mandates for religious reasons are also showcased.
The 2021 rollout of the mRNA-based shot is coming back to the forefront. On Thursday, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. brawled with the entire Democratic wing of the Senate Finance Committee over the changes he’s implementing at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It appears he’s on a not-so-stealth mission to delegitimize the Covid-19 concoction by way of several moves that don’t include an outright ban. The legislators see what’s going on, and they’re coordinating a campaign to have him fired. Read our report “RFK Jr. Fights Congress; Trump Questions Covid-19 ‘Vaccines'” for more on this.
The government’s reckless spending is a major Massie pet peeve, and it receives deserved attention in the video. Woods and Smotz feature a series of clips showing the congressman’s many episodes of opposition to continuing resolutions and omnibus bills that Republicans and Trump supported. “This bill is a debt bomb ticking. We’re not rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic tonight — we’re putting coal in the boiler and setting a course for the iceberg. If something is beautiful, you don’t do it after midnight,” the congressman says while addressing the U.S. House before passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill. That section of the movie also shows Massie attacking the institution that is central to America’s debt crisis:
The Federal Reserve absolutely needs to be audited. They’ve really exceeded any kind of constitutional authority. … It is poison. When you print money it is poison to our economy. The principle is called dilution. When you print $5 trillion and you put it into the economy, you have diluted the value of the money. The principle is so simple that a child can understand it.
The documentary uses a conversation with Tucker Carlson to highlight Trump’s ignorant attack on Massie’s gun record. It also paints the president as the one who infringes on gun rights. Woods and Smotz remind viewers that Trump banned bump stocks during his first tenure. “Take the firearms first and then go to court. I like taking the guns early,” Trump says, followed by snippets of the congressman working overtime to educate legislators in congressional chambers, using pictures and all, on their erroneous understanding of bump stocks.
The Supreme Court overturned the bump-stock ban in 2024. It was a rare instance of a Trump attack on the Second Amendment. But the Justice Department now appears to be mulling over another attempt to curb access to firearms. The Trump DOJ is looking at banning people who believe they’re “transgender” from having firearms. While the motivation may be well-intended and is likely fueled by the accurate rationale that “trans” people are mentally ill, barring anyone from having guns without due process is unconstitutional.
The moviemakers also make a bold attempt to cast Trump as complicit in the unjust jailing and overall treatment of J6ers. Meanwhile, Massie is asking the most important question: Was January 6 an intelligence operation? This part of the movie features a series of clips of “Trump supporter” Ray Epps egging on people around him to go “into the Capitol!” on January 6. Massie torches former U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland for sending “grandmas to prison” and putting people away for 20 years for “merely filming,” while hitting Epps with just a misdemeanor.
This part is, at best, an incomplete characterization. As soon as he got into office again, Trump pardoned J6ers. And before taking back the presidency, he brought attention to the politicization of the justice system that threw them in jail. He also lent his voice to a phone recording of the J6ers singing “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
One of the funnier portions is when Massie labels climate alarmist John Kerry what he really is. “Isn’t it true you have a science degree from Yale?” Massie asks in the clip. “Well, it’s liberal arts education and degree, it’s a bachelor,” Kerry responds. “Ok, so it’s not really science,” Massie says, adding, “I think it’s somewhat appropriate that someone with a pseudo-science degree is here pushing pseudo-science.”
Perhaps the most controversial part of the movie centers around Massie suggesting that Congress is more concerned about support for Israel than America. “Pride in America is looked down upon right now, it’s out of fashion. But pride in Israel is something we have to vote on two or three times a week,” he says hyperbolically while the screen flashes images of “I stand with Israel” stickers. Massie suggests AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee) exerts great control over Congress, and takes aim at Israel’s military operation in Gaza that has killed tens of thousands of civilians. This portion shows images of Trump donning a yarmulke and touching the Wailing Wall. It also portrays the president as someone who, instead of keeping the U.S. out of foreign wars — as he’s promised — has perpetuated American involvement in the Middle East and Ukraine.
Interestingly, Trump recently admitted in an interview with the Daily Caller that Israel has exerted enormous influence on the American Congress for decades:
I will tell you, [20 years ago] Israel had the strongest lobby in Congress of anything or body, or of any company or corporation or state that I’ve ever seen. Israel was the strongest. Today, it doesn’t have that strong a lobby. It’s amazing.
There are also a few shots near the end featuring Trump’s failure, or refusal, to deliver the Jeffrey Epstein files, another saga in which Massie has become a thorn in the president’s side. The moviemakers show images of Trump with Epstein.
Massie’s rural lifestyle is featured near the end. He lives on a farm in northeastern Kentucky, with a panoramic view of Appalachia, and is self-sufficient. He grows his own food and produces his own electricity, and he built his own home. “I don’t need the job,” he says. “You don’t have anything over on me.”