President Donald Trump on Tuesday called Representative Thomas Massie “a terrible congressman” as the Kentucky Fourth Congressional District primary reached its close, with polls shutting in parts of the district where Massie was trying to hold his seat. The race had already become the most expensive congressional primary on record, with a price tag of $33 million.
Trump’s attack landed during a visit to the White House ballroom construction site, where he also said he would be making an endorsement in the Texas Republican Senate primary around 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday and said he had already made up his mind. In Kentucky, the fight centered on whether Massie, the most outspoken Republican critic of Trump, could survive a challenge backed by the president.
Trump recruited and endorsed Ed Gallrein, a former Navy SEAL, to run against Massie, turning the ky 04 primary into a direct test of presidential influence inside one of the party’s safer Republican districts. Gallrein’s entrance gave the race a national edge, and the spending that followed pushed it into record territory for a congressional primary.
The scale of the contest also reflected how personal the break between Trump and Massie had become. On Tuesday, Trump said it was “a ruthless business” that Massie had done that to “an old ally and friend,” then added, “It’s certainly the nature of Trump.” The remarks underscored how the president was framing the race not just as a political contest, but as a test of loyalty.
Massie’s challenge was straightforward: hold onto his seat while facing a president who had both the megaphone and the preferred challenger. With polling hours ending in parts of Kentucky on Tuesday, the race had already answered one question. Trump was willing to put his weight behind a challenger, and he was doing it openly, at the end of a primary that had become one of the most expensive in recent years.
What remained was whether that pressure was enough to move voters in Massie’s district. For a lawmaker who has built his profile by breaking with Trump more than once, the result would show whether that independence still had room in a Republican primary where the president had chosen a side.
