Thomas Massie

Thomas Massie tried to defy political gravity. He repeatedly opposed Donald Trump by criticising the war in Iran, voting against his “Big, Beautiful Bill”, and forcing the release of the Epstein files.

On Tuesday, he finally returned to Earth as he was ousted as the Republican candidate for Kentucky’s fourth district. The president had once again stamped his authority over his party.

There are unspoken laws in American politics that Mr Massie, a forthright libertarian, seemed to delight in flouting.

Mr Trump is the Republican kingmaker, whose endorsement, as the cliché among party strategists goes, is the most powerful force in conservative politics.

Not only did the president withhold his endorsement from Mr Massie, he repeatedly berated him as a “nut job” and “moron”, and handpicked Ed Gallrein, a former navy Seal, to beat him.

Then there were Mr Massie’s repeated criticisms of Benjamin Netanyahu, drawing the ire of the influential, well-funded pro-Israel campaign groups.

The 55-year-old, who has a talent for making enemies, has called for an end to all US military packages for Israel, citing civilian deaths in Gaza, and has criticised Israeli-aligned lobbyists.

On Thursday, he introduced a bill that would force AIPAC, the most powerful of all those campaign groups, to register as a foreign agent.

And finally, money talks. Mr Massie went into the Kentucky race heavily outspent, in what was the most expensive House of Representatives primary in history, with airwaves flooded by negative advertising.

All in all, some $32m (£24m) was spent in the battle, the bulk of it aimed at forcing the congressman from a seat he had held since 2012.

Mr Massie conceded on Tuesday night, and he was in no doubt about why he had lost. He could have appeared before his supporters earlier, he explained in his concession speech, but he “had to call my opponent... it took awhile to find Ed Gallrein in Tel Aviv”.

Claiming that the race, where the first anti-Massie adverts from Mr Trump appeared as early as last summer, had lasted longer than the Vietnam War, he accused his political enemies of “buy[ing] the seat”.

After seven terms in Congress, he lost by around 10 percentage points.

GOP changing under Donald Trump’s feet

Still, even as it looked like business as usual for American politics, there are signs that power is subtly ebbing away from those traditional power bases.

Polling consistently showed Mr Massie led among younger Republicans, and allies, apparently citing internal surveys, claimed he won the under-45 votes by some 30 percentage points – a large margin, if accurate.

Mr Trump has made himself into the ultimate authority in the party, as other Republicans found out to their cost as he embarked on a “revenge tour” to oust critics. But his ratings have collapsed among young voters since the 2024 election.

Even though the president appears to be at the zenith of his powers, the party is changing under his feet.

And Israel’s standing has plummeted among younger voters on both the Left and the Right amid anger over civilian casualties in Gaza.

The generational divide was noted by Marjorie Taylor Greene, the former Georgia representative who once declared she would take a bullet for Mr Trump. But their relationship was shattered by her stance on the Epstein files, and she left Congress rather than watch her political career collapse.

“Releasing the Epstein files was our demise. But it was worth every single bit, because now everyone knows the truth,” she declared on Tuesday.

“Tonight the future of the Republican Party was destroyed. The Real America First Movement will rise led by the younger generations, who hate the old guard.”

All of that may be cold comfort for Mr Massie. But there are two silver linings. The first is that he has emerged as one of the most consequential members of the 119th Congress, as one of the very few Republicans who are willing to defy the president.

Releasing the Epstein files – or half of them, because the department of justice is keeping a tight grip on the remaining three million – was significant in exposing links between the paedophile and the political and business elite.

And there’s also the fact that Mr Massie can do what he wants for the remainder of his term, rather than keeping one eye on his re-election bid. Bill Cassidy, the Louisiana senator who recently lost his own primary, on Tuesday advanced a vote that would strip control for the Iran War from Mr Trump.

“We’ve taken out two dozen CEOs, an ambassador, a prince, a prime minister, a minister of culture – and that was just six months,” Mr Massie said in his concession speech. With a smile, he added: “I’ve got seven months left in Congress.”