President Donald Trump and his top messengers took a victory lap on Tuesday night after Rep. Thomas Massie’s (R-KY) primary loss to Republican Ed Gallrein, who had the president’s backing. “He was a bad guy,” Trump told reporters when asked about Massie’s primary loss. “He deserves to lose.”With 74% of votes counted, Gallrein was leading with 54.4% of the vote compared to Massie’s 45.6% when the Associated Press called the race at 7:54 p.m. Tuesday.“Who’s next?” the Trump War Room, the messaging account for Trump’s political operations, posted to X after the primary. Chris LaCivita, Trump’s 2024 co-campaign manager, tagged Massie in a post on X and attached a photo of Trump taken earlier this year in which he flashed his middle finger at a heckler who accused him of being a “pedophile protector.”
Massie’s loss is the latest in Trump’s efforts to oust members of the party who stymie his agenda.Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) lost his shot at reelection after being targeted for voting to impeach Trump five years ago for the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, and several Indiana state senators lost GOP primaries last month to Trump-backed challengers after refusing the president’s push for mid-decade redistricting.The Kentucky Republican, meanwhile, earned the president’s ire over his efforts to force the Department of Justice to release the Epstein files and his vote against Trump’s signature tax cut law last year.
