Donald Trump spent roughly eight hours on Truth Social on Sunday attacking Kentucky congressman Thomas Massie ahead of Tuesday's Republican primary, calling him the "worst and most unreliable Republican Congressman in the history of our Country" and urging voters to "vote the bum out." The post barrage marked the next test of the president's grip on his party, the Guardian reported, two days after Senator Bill Cassidy was ousted in Louisiana over his 2021 vote to convict Trump.
Massie has been a persistent dissenter, voting against the president's signature tax and spending bill, helping force release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, and pressing for congressional oversight of military action in Venezuela and Iran. "I'm the only one they haven't been able to bully," he said on ABC's This Week, claiming a polling lead. An independent Quantus Insights survey last week put his Trump-endorsed challenger, Ed Gallrein, ahead 48% to 43%, the Guardian reported. Massie blamed wealthy donors and what he called the "Israeli lobby" for funding the effort against him.
Party figures cast the moment as a show of strength. "The headline is: Trump strong," Senator Lindsey Graham said on NBC's Meet the Press, while House Speaker Mike Johnson told Fox News Sunday the president wielded "the most powerful endorsement in the history of politics." A new CBS News poll found Republican approval of Trump's handling of inflation had fallen from 74% in March to 63%, the Guardian reported. Former transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg told CNN's State of the Union he saw "a big opening for Democrats" as the party organizes "more and more around one man."
Figures referenced: Donald Trump. — JudgeMarket.
