Is This MAGA? Trump Wants Lindsey Graham Donor To Challenge ‘RINO’ Massie

Is This MAGA? Trump Wants Lindsey Graham Donor To Challenge ‘RINO’ Massie

   October 19, 2025  Leave a Comment on Is This MAGA? Trump Wants Lindsey Graham Donor To Challenge ‘RINO’ Massie  Posted in Imported News, Zerohedge

Is This MAGA? Trump Wants Lindsey Graham Donor To Challenge ‘RINO’ Massie

Ever-determined to oust popular GOP Rep. Thomas Massie, President Trump has posted yet another anti-Massie rant on social media, trashing the libertarian-minded Kentuckian and urging failed state-level candidate Ed Gallrein to mount a midterm primary challenge. In a 250-word Friday-night post employing his trademark random capitalization, Trump wrote: 

“Third Rate Congressman Thomas Massie, a Weak and Pathetic RINO from the Great Commonwealth of Kentucky, a place I love, and won big SIX TIMES, must be thrown out of office, ASAP!    … 

I hope Ed gets into the Race against Massie. Unlike ‘lightweight’ Massie, a totally ineffective LOSER who has failed us so badly, CAPTAIN ED GALLREIN IS A WINNER WHO WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN. Should he decide to challenge Massie, Captain Ed Gallrein has my Complete and Total Endorsement. RUN, ED, RUN.”

Trump has urged Ed Gallrein — who has donated to Sen. Lindsey Graham’s campaign — to challenge supposed “RINO” Thomas Massie 

Going back to his first term, Trump has periodically attacked Massie, but his fury soared to new heights in June after Massie condemned Trump’s decision to unconstitutionally commit US armed forces to an attack on Iran, joining a war initiated by the State of Israel. Trump posted a lengthy tirade that concluded with an assurance that Massie would face a Trump-backed challenger in the 2026 GOP primary. Days later, the “MAGA Kentucky PAC” was created with the sole purpose of ousting Massie, funded entirely by three Israel-backing billionaires who don’t live in the state, and run by top Trump operatives Tony Fabrizio and Chris LaCivita.     

The anti-Massie drive opened up with a combined $2 million contributed by Miriam Adelson, Paul Singer and John Paulsen. While the drive to end Massie’s career has plenty of money, it’s lacking something more important: a candidate. Gallrein, a former Navy SEAL whose political career consists only of a 2024 primary loss in a state senate race, thanked Trump for the encouragement, and said he’d make a decision soon. Massie was quick to ridicule his adversaries’ quest for a candidate:  

“After having been rejected by every elected official in the 4th District, Trump’s consultants clearly pushed the panic button with their choice of failed candidate and establishment hack Ed Gallrein,” Massie told Politico. “Ed’s been begging them to pick him for over three months now.”

Though he may be unpopular with a particular strain of MAGA Republicans who put pure obedience to Trump above principles like limited government, fiscal responsibility, a non-interventionist foreign policy and fidelity to the Constitution, Massie has built a large national following of people who think he represents the conservative ideal. Trump’s launch of the anti-Massie PAC has spurred those followers to open up their checkbooks, with Massie posting his best-ever fundraising quarter, racking up $768,000 from July to September.   

On Saturday, Massie’s congressional campaign account highlighted an unflattering fact about would-be challenger Gallrein:  

To put the hypocrisy in sharp focus, Trump calls Massie a “Republican In Name Only” (RINO), yet Trump’s chosen candidate has funded the quintessential RINO. As for the validity of Trump’s RINO accusation about Massie, take a look at this sampling of Massie stances that have most angered Trump, and judge for yourself if they’re inconsistent with GOP principles: 

  • Opposing the $2 trillion Covid-19 “relief package” in 2020

  • Voting against this year’s “Big Beautiful Bill” that will increase borrowing by some $4.1 trillion through 2034

  • Introducing legislation to end US involvement in Israel’s war on Iran

  • Organizing a discharge petition that, upon the House going back into session, will force a floor vote on declassifying investigative files relating to Jeffrey Epstein — something Trump calls a Democratic Party “hoax”

Tyler Durden
Sun, 10/19/2025 – 15:45ZeroHedge News​Read More

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