Thomas Massie Deserves to Lose

National Review Online

Monday, May 18, 2026

 

We have a lot of time for quirky, go-it-alone libertarians, but prefer if they aren’t conspiracy theorists or noxious critics of Israel.

 

Representative Thomas Massie, the maverick libertarian from Kentucky in the Ron Paul tradition, is in a titanic primary fight with a Trump-backed opponent, and deserves to lose.

 

The proximate reason for Massie’s political peril is that he’s crossed President Trump one too many times, most notably on the release of the Epstein files. Members of Congress aren’t appendages of the White House, and there’s obviously nothing wrong with a congressman bucking a president of his own party. But Massie’s independence is too often in service of dubious causes.

 

His push to release the Epstein files — violating Justice Department policy and embarrassing and maligning people who had committed no crimes — was driven by the belief that nefarious forces were keeping them secret to hide some vast conspiracy. Now that evidence of this conspiracy has failed to materialize, he, of course, still believes that nefarious forces are hiding the evidence.

 

Meanwhile, he made himself the Inspector Clouseau of the January 6 pipe bomb case, alleging a deep state inside job.

 

Like most right-wing conspiracy theorists, he has no use for Israel. Massie is a genuine isolationist, who opposes even sanctioning other countries, but his opposition to Israel is bitterly irrational. He boycotted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress and claims that every member of Congress has an AIPAC minder. He opposes all aid to Israel, even for Iron Dome, and routinely votes against pro-Israel resolutions. A couple of years ago, he posted a meme saying that Congress has turned its back on American patriotism in favor of Zionism. It’s telling, if not surprising, that a pro-Massie super PAC is running an ad in the race that portrays the billionaire investor and anti-Massie donor Paul Singer, who is Jewish, alongside a rainbow-colored Star of David.

 

We could go on. All of this outweighs Massie’s welcome concern about the federal debt and about protecting congressional prerogatives.

 

President Trump famously said he just needed a warm body to oppose Massie. That is too slighting about Massie’s opponent, Ed Gallrein, a farmer and Navy SEAL, but he hasn’t been much of a presence in the race. His main advantage is that he won’t be an avatar for a fringy, toxic ideology like Massie.

 

We hope that the district’s voters on Tuesday will send Massie to a well-earned retirement, giving him the opportunity to join ally Marjorie Taylor Greene in airing their grievances and wild-eyed theories in the private sector.