President Donald Trump and Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) react during a campaign event at Dorton Arena, in Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S. November 4, 2024. REUTERS/Jonathan Drake
President Donald Trump does not have many Republican critics left in Congress — but one of the few who remains recently told The New York Times that he views his upcoming primary as a “litmus test” for his own party.
“He told me that he thinks if he wins, it will embolden his colleagues to oppose Trump on policy issues they truly care about,” the Times’ Catie Edmondson told Katie Gleuck in a Wednesday interview. Edmondson was discussing her recent interview with Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who has been an outspoken critic of Trump for invading Iran and concealing files related to the late convicted child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. “That being said, and what I hope came through in the piece, is that Massie, and his relationship to his district, are unique. Even if he wins, I’m not sure how many of his colleagues would rush to follow his lead given how much outside money is being spent against him.”
Massie is not alone among Republicans in Congress who stand up to Trump, although he belongs to an increasingly rare breed. Edmondson observed that in Louisiana, incumbent Sen. Bill Cassidy is being primaried by Rep. Julia Letlow because Cassidy voted to convict Trump over his conduct during the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection.
“I remember talking to Cassidy right after he cast that vote and being struck by how angered he was by the violence he witnessed at the Capitol that day,” Edmondson said.
This is not the first time that the Times has profiled Massie for his stance against Gallrein. Earlier in March, reporter Tim Balk interviewed Massie over his willingness to stand up to Gallrein on issues like Iran and Epstein.
In an article published on March 8, the New York Times Tim Balk stresses that a GOP congressional primary battle in Kentucky — one that finds incumbent Massie up against Trump loyalist Ed Gallrein.
"My Republican colleagues, over and over, are being forced to choose between President Trump's position now and his position on the campaign trail. And I'm sticking with his positions on the campaign trail,” Massie told Balk.
The Kentuckian also told Reason Magazine in February that he believes in the near future, people currently holding office will be judged on where they stood on the Epstein issue.
"The question a few years from now will be, 'where were you on the Epstein issue?'" Massie said. "... 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 continued, "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."
Also in February, Massie told NOTUS that he is loyal not to Trump’s second term agenda, but the platform on which he was reelected in 2024.
“My constituents already know I’m ‘America First,’ I’m not for starting another war,” Massie said. “I’m not for deficit spending. And I led the charge to expose a bunch of rich and powerful and politically connected men in the Epstein files. Those are the areas that I’ve differed with the president. So where I differed with the president, my constituents understand why I’ve differed with the president.”