President Donald Trump has lengthy been in a position to bend Republican lawmakers to his will with a single on-line publish. The mere trace of a risk that he would possibly announce a member “SHOULD BE PRIMARIED” is sufficient to convey most GOP members into line.
Not Rep. Thomas Massie.
The 54-year-old former robotics engineer brushed apart that precise threat from Trump Monday night time, even with the president vowing to “lead the cost” towards him after Massie made clear that he wouldn’t vote for the Trump-blessed spending invoice pushed by Home Republican leaders.
Chatting with reporters Tuesday, Massie met the risk with a bemused shrug and a well-practiced joke concerning the state of affairs: “He’s going after Canada and me at present. The distinction is Canada will ultimately cave.”
Massie has earned the appropriate to his lighthearted response. The president used virtually the identical language 5 years in the past, after Massie single-handedly pressured his Home colleagues to return to Washington and vote in particular person on a Covid-19 response invoice in the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020.
Trump on the time labeled Massie a “third-rate grandstander” and mentioned he ought to be thrown out of the Republican Get together. Massie went on to handily win a main problem, helped partially by the truth that his opponent had a history of racist posts on-line.
After the spending invoice handed Tuesday night, Massie mentioned it “feels identical to” the day he opposed the pandemic invoice and urged that “the missives directed at me weren’t to get me to alter my vote — I by no means change my vote.
“I feel they had been to try to preserve the opposite Republicans in line till they get this over to the Senate,” he added.
In a follow-up publish Tuesday, Trump once more labeled Massie a “grandstander,” additionally placing his title of “Congressman” in citation marks.
Since rebuffing the final MAGA onslaught, Massie solely burnished his maverick credentials. He received a spot on the Home Guidelines Committee as a part of a deal hard-right members struck with former Speaker Kevin McCarthy. That gave him appreciable sway over what laws made it to the Home ground.
Later he turned towards McCarthy’s successor, Mike Johnson, taking part in a number one function in attempting to get him changed as speaker when the brand new Congress met in January. He relinquished his seat on Guidelines, and amid all of it, his highschool sweetheart-turned-wife, Rhonda, died.
“I do not know easy methods to say this with out cussing, in the event that they thought I had no Fs to provide earlier than, I positively don’t have any Fs to provide now,” he told the Wall Street Journal not too long ago.
On Tuesday, Massie responded to Trump on-line, calling a post attacking him “deceptive.” Nonetheless, he did not instantly blame the president and as a substitute mentioned it was a “tweet from Trump’s account.” He individually made clear that he thought the Home laws he was opposing was not a part of “Trump’s agenda.”
Massie mentioned in an interview that he thrived on the criticism from essentially the most highly effective Republican of the twenty first century: “I had the Trump antibodies for some time — I wanted a booster.”
But it’s removed from clear that he’s immune from an all-out political assault from Trump. The president, caught up in his personal reelection, by no means actually engaged in Massie’s 2020 race, and Trump went on to endorse him in 2022 as a “conservative warrior.”
This time, the presidential assault was preceded by vital posts from prime Trump strategist Chris LaCivita — indicating that there probably may very well be extra political firepower behind a brand new effort to oust Massie.
Moreover the spending invoice apostasy, there’s different causes for Trump and his political orbit to take intention on the Kentuckian: Massie was one in every of six members of Congress to endorse Ron DeSantis’ presidential marketing campaign; one other, Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.), was pressured out of Congress after Trump endorsed towards Good in a tightly contested main final yr.
Massie has a reservoir of help among the many libertarian-oriented, fiercely anti-spending Republicans who got here up as a part of the tea celebration motion and now have moved towards MAGA. A handful spoke up in his protection this week, together with Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who said Massie “has labored more durable than maybe any member of Congress to convey federal spending below management.”
Johnson provided delicate help for the maverick: “Look, I am within the incumbent safety program right here,” mentioned Johnson. “Thomas and I’ve had disagreements, however I contemplate Thomas Massie a good friend.”
“I simply vehemently disagree along with his place,” he added. “However I will go away it at that.”
The query is whether or not Trump will really observe by along with his political threats this time. There’s motive to be uncertain: Trump not too long ago threatened main challenges towards different dissident Republicans, together with Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), with out following by with an instantaneous endorsement. And historical past has proven that Trump doesn’t have an particularly lengthy reminiscence in terms of Capitol Hill grudges.
Massie appeared nicely conscious when he requested if Trump would maintain a long-lasting grudge. “It’ll blow over,” he mentioned.
Meredith Lee Hill and Jennifer Scholtes contributed to this report.
