A super PAC tied to President Donald Trump has announced plans to spend $1 million on ads calling on voters to “fire” northern Kentucky GOP Congressman Thomas Massie over his vote against the president’s signature bill and criticism of his military strikes in Iran.
The timing of the major spending on attack ads is unusual, as it comes 11 months before the 2026 Republican primary in which Massie will run for reelection, and before any high profile GOP challenger has announced a run against him in that race.
On Sunday, Trump wrote a lengthy social media post blasting Massie for opposing his decision earlier that day to strike nuclear facilities in Iran, saying he will support an unnamed Republican who runs against him.
“MAGA should drop this pathetic LOSER, Tom Massie, like the plague!,” Trump wrote. “The good news is that we will have a wonderful American Patriot running against him in the Republican Primary, and I'll be out in Kentucky campaigning really hard.”
The new ad comes from MAGA KY, a super PAC created three days before the bombings and two days after Massie introduced a resolution to prohibit U.S. involvement in the escalating war between Iran and Israel. It is run by senior Trump campaign advisers Chris LaCivita and Tony Fabrizio.
Axios reported the ads will begin airing on TV Friday in the Cincinnati and Louisville markets and is the first part of an overall $1 million ad buy.
Massie told Kentucky Public Radio in an emailed statement that the ads will not “silence” him.
“I’ve never been bought out by the DC Swamp,” Massie stated. “They’re trying to silence me, but of course it won’t work. It’s a shame these consultants are wasting MAGA donor money on absurd attacks motivated by foreign lobbyists instead of protecting our slim majority.”
Massie angered Trump in May when he voted against the House reconciliation bill — dubbed the “One Big Beautiful Bill” by the president and GOP supporters — that would cut federal taxes by $3.7 billion over the next decade, along with $1.3 trillion of spending cuts. Massie said he did so because the bill did not cut enough spending and would add to the federal budget deficit and national debt.
The narrator in the new ad asks “What happened to Thomas Massie?” before saying he voted against Trump’s bill “banning sex changes on minors,” “cutting taxes and saving Kentucky families $10,000” and “securing our border and deporting criminal aliens.” It then puts Massie on screen with Democratic Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, as well as Iran Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, saying he “sided with Democrats and the Ayatollah” after the bombing of Iran.
Trump and Massie have had a roller coaster relationship in recent years. The president called for him to be purged from the Republican Party in 2020 for voting against a pandemic spending bill he supported, but then endorsed Massie in his 2022 primary. Massie backed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in his 2024 bid for the GOP presidential nomination, who was defeated by Trump.
Despite a long history of butting heads with Trump — who is very popular in the conservative northern Kentucky district — that has not stopped Massie from easily winning reelection for many years. After first winning the GOP nomination for the seat in 2012, he not received less than 67% in any of his subsequent primary elections.
Massie is known for taking a hard line against federal spending in Congress, sometimes being one of the few Republicans to vote against their priority spending bills. He also has a non-interventionist streak when it comes to foreign policy, which is now on display with his criticism of the U.S. joining Israel in its war with Iran.
Massie’s ideology is similar to Kentucky’s GOP Sen. Rand Paul, who is also increasingly drawing the ire of Trump.
Massie told the Herald-Leader this week that Trump’s criticism would not erode his local support, as voters already know and respect his independent streak.
“If I were running against Donald Trump, I’d be in trouble,” Massie told the Herald-Leader. “The thing is, I’m not running against Donald Trump, and Donald Trump, Jr. and Eric Trump aren’t moving to the district I’m running (in). I’m going to be running against somebody nobody’s ever heard of, and I’ve got enough name ID and brand right now that somebody’s gonna have to work really hard to erode that.”
National polling shows that most Republicans approve of the Iran strikes, though some well-known conservative figures, such as Tucker Carlson, have been critical of wider involvement in the Israel-Iran conflict.
State government and politics reporting is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
