Massie says Trump-endorsed rival ditched MAGA label in 2016
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The article centers on a Republican primary fight in Kentucky between Rep.Thomas Massie and his Trump-endorsed challenger Ed Gallrein. Massie accuses Gallrein of not genuinely representing the GOP, pointing to Gallrein’s past switch from Republican to autonomous in 2016 as evidence, while Trump endorsed Gallrein to challenge Massie for not staunchly defending the MAGA agenda. Gallrein’s campaign says the brief registration change was a past frustration with how the district’s politics worked,and that he now aligns with Trump and true conservative Republicans. massie’s camp released an ad portraying Gallrein as a “Trump traitor,” a charge that drew praise from Sen. rand paul and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. The piece also notes Trump’s public involvement, including a Truth Social post and an upcoming visit to the district to back Gallrein, and it places the intra-GOP clash in the broader context of Republican messaging ahead of 2026.
Massie feuds with Trump-endorsed opponent over Gallrein’s decision to ditch party label
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) attacked his rival’s GOP credentials, suggesting Ed Gallrein isn’t the Republican champion President Donald Trump believes he is.
Trump endorsed Gallrein to primary the incumbent lawmaker last October, framing him as someone who would defend the MAGA agenda, something the president said “lightweight” Massie had failed to do.
In a new ad campaign, Massie suggested Gallrein’s record proves he hasn’t always stood on Trump’s side. Gallrein changed his registration from Republican to independent in 2016, just weeks after Trump was announced as the GOP’s presumptive nominee for president, according to voter registration records obtained by Massie’s campaign.
The ad showcasing Gallrein’s apparent flip began airing on Wednesday, the day Trump is expected to visit Massie’s district in support of Gallrein, according to the Courier Journal. Massie changed his registration back to Republican in 2021 when he decided to run for state senate, about five months after then-President Joe Biden was inaugurated, according to the records.
Gallrein’s campaign said the candidate “briefly changed registration out of frustration with the broken system Congressman Massie created in his district, which hurt the Republican Party, and he is proud to stand with President Trump and true conservative Republicans.”
Massie’s ad campaign claims “Woke Ed Gallrein abandoned President Trump’s Republican Party, a dereliction of his MAGA duty … [making him] a Trump traitor.” Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who, like Massie, have been known to buck the president, lauded the ad. Greene mocked the timing of Trump’s visit to back Gallrein, saying, “Trump is going to KY to endorse a true Never Trumper.”
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Trump’s move to endorse Gallrein came after Massie clashed with the president on a variety of issues. Massie has emerged as a loud critic of Trump’s military intervention against Venezuela and Iran, and was one of only two Republicans to vote against the president’s signature Big Beautiful Bill Act last summer due to fiscal concerns.
“I predict that ‘Representative’ Thomas Massie will go down as the WORST Republican Congressman in the long and fabled history of the United States Congress,” Trump wrote in a Wednesday morning post to Truth Social. “Massie, who is running against a great American Patriot in the Kentucky Primary, will hopefully lose BIG. I LOVE KENTUCKY!!!”
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