Free Republic

Elon Musk escalated his feud with President Trump, announcing that he would be backing one of the commander in chief’s biggest foes in congress, Rep. Thomas Massie — the libertarian-leaning House lawmaker who Trump has vowed to see defeated in the midterm election. Musk signaled he would donate to the Kentucky Republican’s 2026 reelection campaign on X when he responded “Me” to a post asking who would be backing Massie’s congressional bid. Trump, meanwhile, had pledged to support whichever candidate runs in the primary against Massie, who the president lambasted as a “loser” and “Third Rate Congressman” in an online...

President Trump’s feud with Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) is showing no signs of abating as the president seeks to oust the GOP congressman for his history of regularly breaking with the administration. Massie recently opposed the administration by denouncing its strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities and refusing to support the president’s legislative agenda, leading Trump’s political operation to launch a targeted campaign against Massie. On Friday, a Trump-aligned super PAC, led by the president’s co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita, rolled out its first ad as part of a $1 million ad buy targeting Massie. The 30-second ad — titled “What happened...

The Senate blocked an effort Friday to prevent President Trump from taking future military action against Iran without authorization from Congress, less than a week after he directed strikes aimed at the country’s nuclear capabilities. Senators voted 47-53 largely along party lines against the war powers resolution. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) was the lone GOP lawmaker to vote with Democrats. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), an ardent backer of Israel, voted with Republicans.

Rapidly making good on President Trump’s promise to back a 2026 Republican primary challenger to libertarian-minded Rep. Thomas Massie, the Trump team has already launched a super PAC dedicated entirely to removing Massie from office next year. It promises to make for the strongest challenge Massie’s faced yet. The new “Kentucky MAGA” super PAC will be run by top Trump political operatives Tony Fabrizio and Chris LaCivita, with La Civita telling Axios the new entity will spend “whatever it takes” to replace Massie. Trump’s political circle has already had discussions with potential challengers. “Massie’s long-time opposition to…really anything to do...

Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has unveiled a plan to override Homeland Security Committee Chair Rand Paul’s (R-Ky.) proposal to fund border security and immigration enforcement activities at roughly half the amount favored by Senate and House Republican leaders. Paul created an uproar two weeks ago when he unveiled his portion of the Trump agenda megabill that would spend $6.5 billion on completing President Trump’s border wall and $22.5 billion on expanding detention facilities for migrants. Now Graham has answered with a move of his own, unveiling a proposal to restore funding for the border wall and Immigration...

Donald Trump appears to have reached a tipping point with the Kentucky Republican, who opposes the president’s legislative package and his decision to bomb Iran without consulting Congress.A “simple-minded ‘grandstander.’” A “pathetic LOSER.” A “BUM.” And that’s just since Saturday. President Donald Trump is intensifying his attacks on Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) as the libertarian-leaning congressman pushes back against the president’s priority legislative package and his decision to bomb Iran without consulting Congress. In doing so, Trump is also making clearer than ever that he wants to see Massie defeated in the 2026 primary — and make an example of...

..... Members of Kentucky’s congressional delegation say Massie’s sprawling district, which runs along the northern border along Ohio and Indiana and stretches from the southern Cincinnati suburbs to the outer bands of the Louisville metro area, is a unique cross-section of the state that appears to relish Massie’s independent streak. It’s home to some of the most prominent members of the “liberty faction” of the Kentucky Republican Party, a group that embraces Trump while also gravitating toward libertarian-leaning Republicans like Massie and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul. The senator has weathered his own barrage of attacks from Trump for voicing opposition...

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., argued that the War Powers Act, a Nixon-era law limiting the president’s power to unilaterally wage war, is unconstitutional. President Donald Trump’s decision to order strikes on Iranian nuclear targets over the weekend was “clearly” within his powers under Article 2 of the U.S. Constitution, Johnson said. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., alongside Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California, has introduced a War Powers resolution that would bar the U.S. military from “unauthorized hostilities” in Iran. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., argued Tuesday that the War Powers Act is unconstitutional, and vowed that a pending resolution...

Representative Thomas Massie (R-KY) said Monday on MSNBC’s “All In” that he was not bothered by President Donald Trump’s criticisms because he had developed what he called “Trump antibodies.” Host Chris Hayes said, “You obviously, you’ve taken some votes that have really put you on an island, I think it’s fair to say. You’re the single, solitary, no vote on that on that Big, Beautiful Bill that was coming through the House.” He asked, “I’m not going to read the entirety of this long post from the president, but he said he’s called you a simple minded grandstander. That MAGA...

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...

'There's only one Republican that I know I can count on for sure doing the right thing,' Rep Crockett says in a new video Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, launched another tirade against President Donald Trump over the weekend, while offering rare praise for one of her House GOP colleagues who is currently at odds with the commander in chief. The Democratic firebrand took to Instagram Live late Saturday to criticize Trump's strikes on Iran, while giving a "shout out" to Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., over his bipartisan resolution to rein in the president's ability to conduct such operations. "So long...

President Trump sending U.S. troops to bomb Iran without the consent of Congress is a blatant violation of our Constitution.

President Donald Trump's political operation has reportedly launched a new political action committee (PAC) to oust Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican. On Sunday, Axios reported that Trump's team had created the Kentucky MAGA super PAC after Massie slammed Saturday's strike on Iran. Senior Trump advisers Tony Fabrizio and Chris LaCivita were expected to run the organization. According to the report, the PAC was in the works before Massie's criticism. LaCivita said the group would spend "whatever it takes" to oust the congressman. It was said to be Trump's first effort to unseat a sitting Republican. "It was a good...

President denounces GOP lawmaker's opposition to Iran strike as disloyal and harmful. US President Donald Trump launched a scathing attack on Republican Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky, sharply criticizing him for opposing recent US military action in Iran.

President Trump said on Sunday that the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement should abandon Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) after his pushback Saturday night against the U.S. strikes on Iran. In a lengthy post on his Truth Social platform, Trump called Massie “not MAGA” and “a simple minded ‘grandstander’ who thinks it’s good politics for Iran to have the highest level Nuclear weapon.” Massie is weak, ineffective, and votes ‘NO’ on virtually everything put before him (Rand Paul, Jr.), no matter how good something may be. He is disrespectful to our great military, and all that they stand for, not...

The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit against Democratic Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear on Tuesday over a state rule that allows illegal immigrations to qualify for in-state tuition rates at public colleges and universities. The lawsuit alleges that Kentucky improperly categorizes individuals in the country without legal status as state residents, thereby making them eligible for reduced in-state tuition rates, while U.S. citizens from other states must pay higher tuition. The move coincides with the Trump administration’s heightened scrutiny of jurisdictions that do not comply with federal immigration laws. “This unequal treatment of Americans is squarely prohibited and preempted...

A bitter feud is escalating between Republican Sen. Rand Paul and Donald Trump’s top border official, injecting uncertainty into Congress’s attempt to pass the administration’s signature policy bill this month. Key Trump adviser Stephen Miller came to Capitol Hill to meet with Senate Republicans on Thursday to resolve a major issue over the bill’s border security provisions – which Paul opposes. Paul and Miller have been locked in a dispute for days over the border funding. The White House is seeking $150 billion in funds for border security and deportation. But Paul – who has repeatedly lashed out against the...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), the chair of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, told reporters Tuesday that his panel will unveil changes to the House-passed bill to enact President Trump’s agenda that will be more “conservative” and propose dramatically less money for border security. Paul has argued for weeks that Congress doesn’t need to spend $150 billion to secure the border and beef up immigration enforcement since border crossings plunged after Trump took office in January. “It will actually be the conservative version of how much money we spend” on the border, Paul told reporters. He said the Senate’s text under...

Simone Biles apologized to Riley Gaines on Tuesday for their online spat over trans-identifying males in women’s sports, the Olympic gymnast adding that she believes the current women’s sports system is “flawed.” The two athletes clashed on Friday when Biles attacked Gaines seemingly out of the blue, calling the former University of Kentucky swimmer a “sore loser” and telling her to “bully someone your own size, which would ironically be a male.” “I wanted to follow up from my last tweets,” Biles posted Tuesday on X. “I’ve always believed competitive equity & inclusivity are both essential in sport. The current...