President Trump is taking a personal turn in his attacks on Rep. Thomas Massie, claiming the Kentucky Republican has shifted left politically — and pinning the blame on Mr. Massie’s new wife.
Mr. Trump said on Truth Social that Mr. Massie “became liberal” because his new wife, Carolyn Grace Moffa, a former staffer for Republican Sen. Rand Paul, is “supposedly a Radical Left ‘flamethrower.’”
He also argued the marriage “went so fast that maybe he didn’t know what he was getting into,” before calling Mr. Massie “an absolutely terrible and unreliable ‘Republican’— perhaps a RINO, or maybe even worse!”
Mr. Massie pushed back with a fact check and suggested the president is still upset that he played a lead role in forcing the administration to release more of the Jeffrey Epstein files.
“So now he’s attacking my wife who voted for him three times,” Mr. Massie said on X. “Maybe someone told him she’s actually the one who suggested I ask Pam Bondi in person at a dinner when we would get Phase 2 of the Epstein files.”
“Bondi said there were no more files. As they say, the rest is history,” he said, days after the Justice bDepartment released 3 million more documents and videos.
In another post, Mr. Massie joked, “Who knew Carolyn would also get free rent in Trump’s head when she married me! I guess that’s just one of the perks.”
Mr. Massie’s willingness to challenge Mr. Trump on foreign policy, government spending, and the Epstein files has put him squarely in the president’s sights this primary season.
Some of Mr. Trump’s top pro‑Israel donors are also helping fund a super PAC working to unseat Mr. Massie over his long‑held opposition to sending taxpayer dollars to foreign countries, including Israel.
Mr. Massie has also argued that Mr. Trump’s intervention in Venezuela was unconstitutional and ran counter to what he sees as the anti‑interventionist roots of the Make America Great Again movement.
Mr. Trump is now supporting Mr. Massie’s primary challenger, Ed Gallrein, a farmer and former Navy SEAL.
“He is running because he realizes Thomas Massie has been totally disloyal to the President of the United States, and the Republican Party,” Mr. Trump said Monday. “He never votes for us, he always goes with the Democrats.”
Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who recently resigned from Congress after a public break with Mr. Trump, rushed to Mr. Massie’s defense, saying the president “treats those who support him the most like crap.”
“Thomas Massie votes with the president 91% of the time, but won’t vote to protect Epstein’s sick pedophile and rapists friends or send American’s hard earned tax dollars to Israel’s wars or any other foreign country,” Ms. Greene said on X.
“The President should be more concerned with voters, who put him in office, like Thomas Massie’s wife, not super rich donors and their favorite foreign countries and business demands,” Ms. Greene said.
