Massie’s frog fans came to the rescue.
President Donald Trump is threatening to unseat Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) after the libertarian congressman announced he would vote against a stopgap spending bill to fund the government past this Friday.
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But the online right’s most hardcore Trump supporters are siding with Massie instead of the president.
Trump first targeted Massie in a post on Truth Social late Monday night, calling for a MAGA loyalist to primary the Kentucky lawmaker.
“HE SHOULD BE PRIMARIED, and I will lead the charge against him,” Trump wrote.
The president doubled down on Tuesday afternoon.
“Thomas Massie is a GRANDSTANDER, and the Great People of Kentucky are going to be watching a very interesting Primary in the not too distant future!” Trump wrote.
But Massie’s libertarian politics, resistance to foreign lobbying, and quixotic commitment to lowering the national debt have endeared him to a particular blend of nationalists, many of whom are warning Trump that he’s picking the wrong enemy.
“We choose Massie,” wrote the poster Grubby Groyper in response to Trump’s comment.
“Massie is the only congressman not taking money from AIPAC. I don’t think it’s a coincidence Trump is targeting him. America First > MAGA,” added Hermoa Groyper on X.
But it wasn’t just the farthest right frustrated by Trump’s comments.
“Whoever told Donald Trump to post about Thomas Massie just now should be fired,” wrote one popular right-wing commentator on X. “I’ve never seen this quick of a push back and condemnation against something Trump has said by his most loyal followers.”
“Imagine if every Republican were like Thomas Massie,” the Babylon Bee satirist Joel Berry wrote, this time with no apparent satire involved. “We’d get our country back.”
Even on the Trump-owned Truth Social platform, portions of the normie MAGA movement came to Massie’s defense.
“Massie is right,” one user replied to Trump’s initial post lambasting Massie. “Balance the budget. Stop giving in to the swamp.”
“Massie is great,” another account wrote bluntly.
The congressman himself responded to attacks from Trumpworld even before the president chimed in, replying yesterday to a threat from Trump campaign strategist Chris LaCivita to primary the seven-term legislator.
“Someone thinks they can control my voting card by threatening my re-election. Guess what? Doesn’t work on me,” Massie shot back on X. “Three times I’ve had a challenger who tried to be more MAGA than me. None busted 25%.”
The Kentuckian also appeared to appreciate the support from online right-wingers, giving a shout-out to pro-Massie memes from his most ardent libertarian supporters.
“Thank you to my friends on X for all the support,” he wrote on X on Tuesday morning. “…and the memes!”
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