Thomas Massie

Conservative commentator Tucker Carlson attacked President Trump and lamented the primary loss handed to Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), whom the president lobbied voters in Kentucky to oust in the weeks leading up to Tuesday’s election.

“This is the saddest moment in a long time. It’s not just the death of Thomas Massie’s immediate political career, which may be resurrected, one never knows,” Carlson said on a recent episode of his podcast and video show.

“It’s obviously the death of MAGA, whatever that was, but it’s also of course the end of the Republican Party as we thought we knew it,” he added in comments first highlighted by Mediaite.

Massie lost to the Trump-backed Ed Gallrein by more than 9 points Tuesday after weeks of blasting the president over U.S. foreign policy and the Justice Department’s handling of the files tied to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The Kentucky Republican’s loss followed a slew of other GOP losses in which Trump endorsed primary challengers against incumbents he considered critical of his agenda, including Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.).

Carlson, a former ally of the president, has turned increasingly critical of Trump in recent months, particularly over the war in Iran.

He blasted Trump this week after the president boasted about what he says is his popularity in Israel, a country Carlson has argued is influencing the administration’s foreign policy moves in the Middle East.

“I’m right now at 99 percent in Israel, I could run for prime minister,” Trump told reporters Wednesday.

“The last year has not made America great again. The last year has diminished American power at a rate some of us thought was unimaginable,” Carlson said. “We couldn’t have foreseen, less than a year and a half ago … the damage that this administration, led by that president, for whom we campaigned and liked personally, could do to this country.”

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.