Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) warned in an interview on “Meet the Press” on Sunday that the Republican Party will be “very vulnerable” during the midterm elections.
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Asked if the Republican Party is starting to break with President Donald Trump, Massey said the party is “concerned about its own political death.”
“Certainly we can beat the Republicans in the primaries, but the Republicans will be very vulnerable this fall.”
Massey lost in last week’s primary to former Navy SEAL Ed Galine, who was backed by Trump. The president strongly opposed Massey, repeatedly criticizing him in public and urging his supporters to vote for him to resign.
Massey, who broke with the Trump administration over issues including the Iran war and the administration’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein file, said breaking with Trump was “absolutely worth it for me.”
“I don’t think it’s worth it to the party,” he said. “Look, some people on the left have ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’. They call it TDS. But there’s also a growing number of people on the right who have a form of TDS called ‘Trump Disappointment Syndrome.'”
“And I think what’s going to happen to the party this fall is that President Trump has disenfranchised a large portion of the constituencies that were assembled to put us in the White House, the Senate majority, the House majority,” he added.
Massey also criticized the president’s focus on issues such as construction of the White House ballroom, which he described to host Kristen Welker as “a slap in the face of Americans.”
“Ballrooms are a terrible waste of money,” Massey said.
President Trump has repeatedly said the ballroom will be funded by private donations (NBCUniversal’s parent company, Comcast Corp., is one of the donors). But this month, Republicans sought to dedicate $1 billion in taxpayer funds to construction-related security. Senators then decided that the bill would need to be rewritten to pass through the reconciliation process, which would require only a simple majority and no Democratic support.
“The president was bragging about Roman architecture, but the reality is we’re run like the Roman Empire,” Massey said of the president’s description of the ballroom. “We’re overextending overseas with foreign aid and overseas bases. We’re spending money we don’t have, and gas, rent, and food are too expensive for people to buy.”
“I think it’s dangerous to indulge in things like gold-plated ballrooms in Washington, D.C., when the American people are suffering,” he added.
Later in the interview, Massey mentioned possible White House ambitions in 2028.
Asked if he was considering running for president, Massey said: “I’m not ruling anything out and I’m not making any decisions at this point.”
“As time passes, the tension gradually subsides,” he says. “It’s like coming up from the bottom of the ocean. I’m going to take some time to decide what I’m going to do next, but I think I’ll continue to be involved in some way, shape or form. Maybe it’s from the outside. I’ve been exposing what’s going on in Washington, D.C., for years, and I’ll continue to do that.”
