WASHINGTON, May 16, 2026 — President Donald Trump intensified his campaign to oust Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., on Saturday, calling him “the worst and most unreliable Republican Congressman in the history of our Country” and urging Kentucky voters to replace him with Ed Gallrein — a retired Navy SEAL, Army Ranger, and decorated combat veteran — in Tuesday’s Republican primary.
“Vote for Ed Gallrein, a successful Kentucky farmer, and American War Hero, who only ran because he thought that Massie was so disloyal and disrespectful to your President, ME!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Bad Congressman Tom Massie voted against Tax Cuts, the Border Wall, our Military and Law Enforcement. Actually, he voted against almost everything that is good.”
A Year in the Making
Trump’s weekend assault on Massie is the culmination of a feud that has escalated steadily since June 2025, when Massie called Trump’s airstrikes on Iranian nuclear sites unconstitutional and co-sponsored a bipartisan war powers resolution alongside Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna to limit the president’s authority to strike Iran. Trump responded by calling Massie “not MAGA,” a “grandstander,” and a “pathetic LOSER” — and announced he would campaign personally against him in Kentucky.
Trump followed through in March 2026, traveling to Kentucky to hold a rally against a sitting member of his own party. “Thomas Massie is a disaster for our party,” Trump told the crowd. His team also launched a super PAC — Kentucky MAGA — led by Trump’s senior political advisers Tony Fabrizio and Chris LaCivita, who said the group would spend “whatever it takes” to take down Massie.
Massie’s opposition to the Iran war was not his only break with Trump. He was one of only two House Republicans — along with Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania — to vote against the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” Trump’s signature legislative package extending tax cuts, boosting immigration enforcement funding, and defunding Planned Parenthood. The bill passed 218-214. Massie cited the national debt as his reason, calling the bill a “ticking debt bomb” that represented “Biden-level spending and increased deficits.” In 2020, he also stymied Trump’s efforts to pass a $2.2 trillion COVID-19 relief bill by forcing a recorded vote that nearly derailed the package.
According to an analysis by CQ Roll Call, Massie voted with Trump 77.6 percent of the time in the last Congress — a figure Massie has cited in his own defense but Trump has dismissed as insufficient.
Who Is Ed Gallrein
Gallrein, a fifth-generation farmer from Shelby County, Kentucky, spent three decades in uniform as a Navy SEAL officer. He served multiple tours on SEAL Team Six, earned four Bronze Stars including the Combat Parachute Badge, graduated from Army Ranger School, and retired at the rank of Captain after leading missions across seven different SEAL teams spanning from Panama to the Persian Gulf.
Trump recruited Gallrein personally during a White House meeting on October 17, 2025. “Thirty minutes into that conversation, President Trump said, ‘Ed, I don’t have two consecutive terms like President Reagan to enact the agenda that I was overwhelmingly elected to deliver. Every year matters, every month matters, every week matters, every day matters. And every vote in the Congress and Senate matters,'” Gallrein recalled. Four days after Trump posted “RUN, ED, RUN” on Truth Social, Gallrein launched his campaign on October 21, 2025.
Gallrein had previously run for Kentucky State Senate District 7 in 2024, losing by just over 100 votes. This is his first run for federal office. His campaign platform centers on pledging unconditional support for Trump’s legislative agenda — a direct contrast to Massie’s record of principled opposition. “This district voted for President Trump over 83 percent,” Gallrein has said. “We knew exactly what we were voting for — the agenda, full stop.”
The Most Expensive House Primary in History
The Massie-Gallrein race has become the most expensive U.S. House primary in American history, with ad spending surpassing $25.6 million — eclipsing the prior record of $25.2 million set in New York’s 16th congressional district in 2024. Massie had $1.47 million in cash on hand compared to Gallrein’s $1.39 million heading into the final stretch, with outside groups backing both sides flooding the airwaves.
Massie has pushed back hard. His campaign released a television ad tying himself to Trump, saying “I agree with President Trump a whole lot more than I disagree with him,” while listing areas of agreement including border security, the Second Amendment, and fighting the “woke agenda.” His campaign simultaneously attacked Gallrein, dubbing him “Woke Eddie Gallrein” and highlighting that Gallrein switched his voter registration from Republican to Independent in 2016 — shortly after Trump secured the GOP nomination — before re-registering as a Republican in 2021. Gallrein has said he voted for Trump in all three of his presidential campaigns.
Cassidy’s Fall as Warning
Trump’s Saturday posts came hours after Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La. — who voted to convict Trump in the 2021 Senate impeachment trial — was blocked from advancing in Louisiana’s Republican Senate primary, becoming the first sitting U.S. senator in modern history to be denied a place on his own party’s primary ballot. Trump cited Cassidy’s fate directly in his Saturday night Truth Social post on Massie, calling it a warning for those who cross him. “That’s what you get by voting to Impeach an innocent man,” Trump wrote.
Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District primary is Tuesday, May 19, 2026. Massie has won his last three primaries with at least 75 percent of the vote, but faces his toughest challenge yet in a district that voted for Trump by more than 83 percent in 2024.