President Donald Trump has escalated his political pressure campaign dramatically in recent weeks, leaning on allies, conservative media figures, and some of the loudest voices in his orbit as he tries to crush a Republican enemy who refuses to bend to his demands. Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, one of the few remaining GOP lawmakers willing to openly defy Trump even as much of the party falls in line behind him, is facing the president’s wrath. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s affirmation of President Donald Trump’s claims about Iran has some convinced he’s being set up as the fall guy. (Photo: Matt McClain/The Washington Post via Getty Image) Massie has repeatedly infuriated Trump by opposing key parts of his agenda and more recently by pushing for the release of all files tied to convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, whose longtime association with Trump has become an increasingly uncomfortable issue for the president. The president has endorsed Massie challenger retired Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein in Kentucky’s heated Republican primary on Tuesday, May 19, and even sent his Defense chief Pete Hegseth to the state on Monday to campaign for Gallrein — an apparent violation of the Hatch Act law that prohibits all executive branch personnel from campaigning except the president and vice president. ‘We Have a Problem’: Massie Just Ripped the Lid Off a $20 Million Plot to Silence Him and Dared Anyone to Deny It — and Washington Is Terrified of What He’s Going to Say Next Hegseth, taking a timeout from managing the war on Iran, went on the attack against Massie at a rally in Hebron Monday, May 18, accusing him of throwing Trump under the bus and voting with Democrats one too many times, but Trump’s bitter political enemy former Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene stepped into the fray and took Hegseth down with one blistering social media post. Above a clip of Hegseth raging against the incumbent Massie, Greene called MAGA “a cult” and corrected Hegseth on where lawmakers’ loyalties should lie. “You know what’s so disturbing about this? It’s not about serving Trump. It’s about defending and protecting the constitution and the American people,” Greene stated, before making a pointed jab at Hegseth. “MAGA has become a cult where Fox News hosts demand absurd loyalty to the very neocon establishment policies that Americans voted to end.” You know what’s so disturbing about this?It’s not about serving Trump. It’s about defending and protecting the constitution and the American people.MAGA has become a cult where Fox News hosts demand absurd loyalty to the very neocon establishment policies that Americans voted… https://t.co/xEmYvFvXv2— Marjorie Taylor Greene (@mtgreenee) May 18, 2026 Greene referring there to Hegseth’s previous job as a Fox News host before Trump appointed him to the top administration job at the Pentagon. A day earlier Greene reposted a message from Kentucky Statesman accusing Republicans of “planning to cheat” with a one word reply. “Well..,” she wrote. Hegseth isn’t the only official Trump has sent after Massie. The president’s Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security and assistant to the president Stephen Miller fired a shot across Massie’s bow Tuesday with a false comment on X calling into question Massie’s values. “Massie has one of the single most conservative districts in all of America and votes with Democrats on almost all critical votes,” Miller gaslighted earning a Community Note correction over the falsehood. Well.. https://t.co/l66CzEV73U— Marjorie Taylor Greene (@mtgreenee) May 18, 2026 The group Heritage Action flagged Miller’s post writing, “False. Rep. Massie votes with Republicans 90-91% of the time and has strong conservative ratings (Heritage Action lifetime 83%, recent sessions 84-96%). He mainly opposes big-spending and foreign-aid bills.” Vice President JD Vance has also gone after Massie on Trump’s behalf and like Miller has told falsehoods about Massie’s voting record, including in a vicious attack last October as Massie was working with other lawmakers to force Trump to release the Epstein files. Vance saying at the time, “Voting against the party on every single issue. You’re eventually going to make too many enemies. It’s not one issue or 3 issues it’s every single issue. Every time we’ve needed Thomas for a vote he has been unwilling to provide it.” Massie isn’t taking any of this lying down. He addressed Trump’s wrath over his support for releasing the Epstein files and his sponsorship of a bill forcing Trump to do just that in an NBC News interview. “I vote with the party 90 percent of the time, but there’s 10 percent of the time where I think my constituents are better served by a different vote,” he said. “Releasing the Epstein files put me on the wrong side of the president for quite a while, but on the right side of my constituents, who had been promised that we would release the Epstein files.” After Hegseth’s campaign rally for Gallrein, Massie told CBS News the challenger’s campaign must be “imploding.” Trump betrayed all of us. Massie is everything Trump promised and campaigned to be. Now he is having unhinged man child tantrums and posts because he’s mad we noticed. https://t.co/rTxHpeDDdf— Lucy Riles (@LucyRiles) May 19, 2026 “How much personal time do you have when you’re supposed to be monitoring a war in Iran?” he pointed out. “You don’t send the Secretary of War to Kentucky during a war if you think your candidate is up 10 points. That’s what you do when you realize your whole campaign is imploding.” ‘They’re Planning to Cheat’: Trump Pulled Hegseth Away From an Active War to Do His Dirty Work — Then MTG Dropped One Post That Sent the Entire Operation Into a Meltdown ...read more read less