President Donald Trump at the Kaseya Center in Miami, Florida on April 12, 2025 (Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok/Flickr)
President Donald Trump is visiting Kentucky on Wednesday to target the congressional district of one of his most prominent Republican critics — and doing so, according to one Republican group, at the expense of issues important to voters.
“Trump's rushing to Kentucky today,” posted The Lincoln Project on X on Wednesday. “He’s not there to honor the soldier from KY lost in his foolish war, nor address Kentuckians concerns on affordability. He’s there to help primary a Republican who pushed for the Epstein Files’ release.”
The Lincoln Project, a Republican group that regularly criticizes Trump, referred to the fact that Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) is one of the few Republicans in Congress to routinely and loudly call for full release of the Jeffrey Epstein files. In some of those documents, Trump is accused of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl while socializing with Epstein in the 1980s. Additionally, he became one of the few Republican lawmakers to openly split with Trump over the president’s unprovoked war against Iran.
"Mr. Massie, a libertarian with a contrarian streak, was a rare Republican to split with Mr. Trump over the war," reported The New York Times’ Tim Balk on March 8. "Only one House Republican, Representative Warren Davidson of Ohio, joined Mr. Massie in supporting a failed measure last week to force the president to go to Congress for approval to continue using force against Iran. As Mr. Massie braces for the fight of his political life against Ed Gallrein, a farmer who has pledged fealty to the president, he has sought to reframe the race, saying it is not simply between him and Mr. Gallrein, but between him and groups, including the Republican Jewish Coalition, that want to 'make an example' out of him.”
Balk added that “in a statement, Mr. Gallrein, a former Navy SEAL, praised Mr. Trump's handling of the war, and said his own military career had taught him that swift 'action, clear objectives, and overwhelming strength save American lives and prevent larger wars.'"
By contrast to Gallrein’s avowed support for Trump, Massie told Reason Magazine in a February interview that the Republican Party was losing credibility for not supporting transparency regarding Epstein’s crimes and his victims.
"The question a few years from now will be, 'where were you on the Epstein issue?'" Massie asked. "... Were you for releasing the files, or were you calling it a hoax, or were you just too chicken to come out and say anything?"
He added, "And I think unfortunately, a lot of the politicians right now who are being considered the future of the GOP are either in the category of agreeing that it's a hoax, or just keeping their mouth shut, because they don't have the courage and the political will to do the right thing. And so I don't think you should trust those people later."
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