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.
“We ran a race that you can be proud of,” Massie told supporters Tuesday night following his defeat. “You have to apologize to nobody tomorrow for anything you did, and we kept smiling the whole time when I was called a moron at the prayer breakfast. I said, ‘I’m glad I’m in his prayers.’”
“Just that would be my advice to you all,” Massie continued, “Don’t dig in, don’t get mad, don’t even try to get even. Just stay on your course, get your stuff done, get the things you care about done. We weren’t really running against Ed Gallrein, we weren’t running against Donald Trump, we were running for what we believe in.”
TRUMP-BACKED ED GALLREIN DEFEATS THOMAS MASSIE IN KENTUCKY
The race broke records as the most expensive House primary race in history. At least $32 million was spent on ads throughout the overall race. Trump-aligned groups poured more than $7 million into the race, while pro-Israel organizations spent another $9 million to unseat Massie.
“Do not ever doubt President Trump and his political power,” Steven Cheung, an assistant to the president and White House director of communications, posted on X. “F*** around, find out.”
