LA GRANGE, Ky. (AP) — President Donald Trump and his political operation are working to unseat their first Republican incumbent: Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, who has drawn Trump's wrath by saying the president lacked the authority to attack Iran's nuclear sites without congressional approval and voted against his massive tax and spending cuts bill.
Trump aides have launched a new super PAC devoted to defeating Massie in his 2026 primary, Axios first reported. It is the first concerted effort by his team to unseat a sitting member of Congress and sends a clear signal to other Republicans that they cross Trump at their peril.
For the libertarian-leaning Kentucky congressman, the threats and social media barrage from Trump are nothing new. Massie has a history of angering the White House. He was one of two House Republicans to vote against the “One Big Beautiful Bill” Trump wants on his desk by July 4. In 2020, he tried to stall a massive coronavirus aid package during Trump's first term.
Massie also backed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over Trump in the 2024 GOP primary.
In recent days, he has accused Trump of abandoning his campaign pledge to keep the U.S. out of war, and joined Democrats in introducing a resolution that would have required Congress to authorize any attacks on Iran.
Now, the Republican president has vowed to campaign against Massie in his GOP-dominated district, which stretches across the Bluegrass State's norther tier. And Trump will have backing.
The new PAC, Kentucky MAGA, will be run by two of Trump’s top political lieutenants, his former co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita and longtime pollster Tony Fabrizio.
They began planning the effort weeks ago and have met with several potential challengers. They plan to rally behind a single candidate to avoid a repeat of past cycles when multiple challengers split the opposition vote and competed for the president's endorsement.
“If you want to be part of an effort to defeat Massie you will go through us. And the Trump political operation will run the campaign," LaCivita said Monday, adding that the group would spend “whatever it takes.”
News of the new operation comes after Trump unleashed on Massie on his social media platform, declaring him “not MAGA” and a “pathetic LOSER" after Massie railed against the bombings.
“Massie is weak, ineffective, and votes ‘NO’ on virtually everything put before him (Rand Paul, Jr.), no matter how good something may be," Trump wrote. “MAGA should drop this pathetic LOSER, Tom Massie, like the plague! 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."
So far, Niki Lee Ethington, a registered nurse, has said she will challenge Massie in the GOP primary next spring.
Massie deflected the onslaught with humor, replying in his own social media post that the president had “declared so much War on me today it should require an Act of Congress.”
“I suspect the President isn’t doing this out of spite for me, but instead to intimidate my colleagues into rubber stamping his actions," Massie told The Associated Press Monday in a statement. “He knows me well enough to know he’s not changing my mind with these threats.”
Until now, Trump has declined to use his enormous war chest to target Republican incumbents, even as he has voiced frustrations. It's been a change from the 2022 election cycle, when Trump aggressively targeted Republicans who had voted to impeach him.
This time he is taking a more disciplined approach, cognizant of Republicans' extremely narrow majority in the House and the fact that a loss would imperil his agenda and risk miring him in more impeachments. To that end, the White House has frowned on members giving up competitive seats to run for higher office, which could put those seats at risk.
Kentucky has emerged as an unexpected thorn in Trump's side.
The president has dominated every presidential election since 2016 in the bright red state. Republicans captured the Kentucky House in 2016 by riding Trump's coattails, completing a full takeover of the Kentucky legislature.
But he has repeatedly clashed with some of their lawmakers in Washington, including Sen. Rand Paul, who is also a critic of the spending bill and has railed against Trump's tariffs, as well former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, whom he has viciously attacked.
It remains unclear whether Trump's attacks will be effective. Massie — known for going his own way in Congress — has remained enormously popular in his conservative district and has fended off primary challengers in the past.
In downtown La Grange on Monday, Trump’s latest attack didn't seem to be gaining much traction.
Republican voter Donna Williamson said Massie’s willingness to stand up to Trump over Iran only strengthens her support for him.
“He’s speaking out and saying what he believes is true, even when it makes him unpopular,” she said, “which means I’ve got my ear on him. I’m listening to him.”
Massie supporter Rob Houchens, a Republican businessman, called the congressman “a man of principle” and said, “I believe his principles are in alignment with me and many other of his constituents.”
“And I can't think that it would change one iota of how we would vote," he added.
Democratic voter Kim Harper said Massie's willingness to take a stand against Trump might even make her willing to support him.
“I would vote for somebody that would stand up on each party,” she said, calling Massie's actions “courageous” at a time most GOP lawmakers are scared to buck the president.
Polling suggests voters are split on how Congress should approach Trump. About 6 in 10 registered voters say they would like to see Republicans in Congress do “more to check” the president, according to a June Quinnipiac poll. But that sentiment isn’t shared by many Republican voters. Only about 16% say they want lawmakers in their party to stand up to Trump more, while roughly 8 in 10 want them to do “more to help” him.
Still, a majority of Republicans say congressional Republicans do not have an obligation to support Trump’s policies and programs if they disagree with him, according to a Pew Research Center Poll conducted earlier this year.
The latest spat reflects the rollercoaster relationship between the two Republicans.
After Trump denounced Massie in 2020 as a “third rate Grandstander” for trying to hold up a COVID-19 relief bill that Massie considered wasteful, the congressman trounced his primary challenger and won reelection that fall.
Two years later, Massie was back in Trump's good graces. In a 2022 endorsement, Trump referred to Massie as a “Conservative Warrior” and a “first-rate Defender of the Constitution.”
Longtime Kentucky political commentator Al Cross said Trump's attack will be an “interesting test, particularly if Trump gets personally involved beyond social media posts."
It will also matter whether the attack on Iran remains isolated or marks the beginning of a protracted war.
“We don’t know how much war the MAGA base will accept,” Cross said. “In any event, my money would be on Massie because he has a following made substantial by personal contact, not just social media.”
Colvin reported from New York. AP poll and surveys reporter Linley Sanders contributed from Washington.
President Donald Trump boards Air Force One at Morristown Municipal Airport in Morristown, N.J., Saturday, June 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
FILE - Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., listens during a joint subcommittee hearing of the House Judiciary Committee, on Capitol Hill, April 1, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)
