Thomas Massie Finally Seizes His Moment

Supporters of Rep. Thomas Massie gathered in his Kentucky district over the weekend to campaign for him, drawing the wrath of his libertarian-leaning Republican foe: Donald Trump. The furious former president urged a new wave of penalties against those who would oppose him, singling out Rep. Lauren Boebert (R–Col.), who said she stood with both Massie and Trump.

“Boebert is campaigning for the Worst ‘Republican’ Congressman in the History of our Country, Thomas Massie, of the Great Commonwealth of Kentucky, and anybody who can be that dumb deserves a good Primary fight!” seethed Trump on Truth Social. “Even though I long ago endorsed Boebert, if the right person came along, it would be my Honor to withdraw that Endorsement, and endorse a good and proper alternative.”

Boebert, to her credit, was not cowed, replying on X that she was “proud to stand by my friend Thomas Massie.”

Sen. Rand Paul (R–Ky.) and Rep. Victoria Spartz (R–Ind.) have also campaigned for Massie.

Massie’s Race Matters! pic.twitter.com/gdiW7kIUkE

— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) May 18, 2026

The president’s allies are pulling out all the stops against Massie, including a late accusation of personal misconduct involving a former girlfriend. Despite headlines touting a supposed “hush money” payment, the facts are far more mundane: Massie says he gave his ex-girlfriend, Cynthia West, somewhere between $5,000 and $10,000 to assist her relocation to Washington, D.C. West later secured, and then lost, a job in Spartz’s office, and filed a wrongful-termination suit. Both Massie and Spartz deny that any “hush money” was offered. By contrast, the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights offered her $60,000 to settle the suit, which she declined.

That kind of non-scandal would scarcely merit coverage, but Trump’s social-media boosters have seized upon it. Laura Loomer has posted about Massie nonstop on X, and she even plans to publish some form of interview with West.

All of this illustrates that crossing Trump remains a high-risk maneuver within the Republican Party. Massie enjoys solid support in his district, but Trump is pulling every lever to bolster Massie’s challenger, Ed Gallrein. With both camps spending a combined $35 million, the race has already earned the distinction of being the most expensive congressional primary in history.

Meanwhile, Gallrein is running a rather inert campaign, basically coasting on Trump’s endorsement. He has skipped every debate and dodged basic questions about his past. Independent journalist Ken Klippenstein notes that Gallrein has been intentionally vague about his time as a Navy SEAL, leaving voters to fill in gaps with speculation about secret missions. Gallrein has boasted that Trump reviewed his classified documents—and if he’s deemed worthy by Trump, he suggests, he should be acceptable to Republican voters in the primary.

As expected, Gallrein has fully embraced Trump’s stance on a range of issues that many Republicans find difficult to defend, including foreign policy moves and a rise in gas prices at home. He has claimed that Trump is playing “five-dimensional chess” against Iran, later tweaking the analogy to “nine-dimensional chess,” joking that the former president’s knack for victory transcends ordinary chessboard limits.

Tuesday’s primary looks to be a tight contest. Some recent polls show Massie behind Gallrein, and betting markets also tilt toward the challenger.

In another note, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R–La.) suffered a primary defeat over the weekend, finishing third and not advancing to the runoff. Cassidy had voted to remove Trump from office after January 6 and blocked some of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s proposals. Now Cassidy is out of the picture: Trump may lag in national polls, but within the party he continues to pick off incumbents and hopefuls alike.

Scenes from Washington, D.C.: It was a sunny weekend in the capital, with temperatures finally hovering reliably in the 80s on Sunday. I attended a graduation celebration, a midday gathering with fellow reporters, and the annual Dragon Boat Festival, a Taiwanese cultural showcase.

QUICK HITS

• Trump’s remarks about delaying arms sales to Taiwan have raised concerns among some observers.
• Trump also asserted that China promised not to provide military aid to Iran in the ongoing conflict.
• A group of students protested Jonathan Haidt as he spoke at New York University’s commencement last week. His remarks were later published by The Atlantic.
• New data-center projects are becoming increasingly controversial.
• Megan McArdle: “Is France really poorer than Mississippi?” The answer, according to her, is yes.
• Elon Musk continues to complain about the casting for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. Here is Oliver Traldi’s sharp critique of this debate.

To settle a troublesome discourse, I have provided here the most faithful and poetic possible translation of the beginning of the Odyssey.

We male sex. We
complex. We

fake horse. We
off course. We

sail long. We
hear song. We

pig crew. We
home soon.

— Oliver Traldi (@olivertraldi) May 17, 2026