President Trump vowed that he would “lead the charge” to find a primary opponent to run against Rep. Thomas Massie, who has promised to vote against a government funding extension that the president supports.
Mr. Trump is trying to rally congressional Republicans to support the latest stopgap bills that came out over the weekend, which he and House Speaker Mike Johnson have pitched as a way to continue working on his agenda without a costly partial government shutdown getting in the way.
But Mr. Massie, Kentucky Republican, often staunchly opposes stopgap bills, known as continuing resolutions or CRs. He argues that they never fully address spending issues and instead push ahead spending agendas laid out by Democratic lawmakers.
The nature of the House GOP’s razor-thin majority means that the speaker cannot afford to lose another vote if he hopes to pass the measure with only Republicans supporting it, and not every Republican is completely on board with the plan.
However, members of the House Freedom Caucus, who rarely support CRs, issued a full-throated endorsement of the plan, a move that Mr. Trump lauded before turning his sights to Mr. Massie.
“Congressman Thomas Massie, of beautiful Kentucky, is an automatic ‘NO’ vote on just about everything, despite the fact that he has always voted for Continuing Resolutions in the past,” Mr. Trump posted on social media. “HE SHOULD BE PRIMARIED, and I will lead the charge against him. He’s just another GRANDSTANDER, who’s too much trouble, and not worth the fight.”
“He reminds me of Liz [Cheney] before her historic, record breaking fall (loss!),” he posted. “The people of Kentucky won’t stand for it, just watch. DO I HAVE ANY TAKERS??? Anyway, thank you again to the House Freedom Caucus for your very important vote. We need to buy some time in order to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, GREATER THAN EVER BEFORE. Unite and Win!!!”
Mr. Massie did not directly respond to Mr. Trump’s threat, but did fire back at Chris LaCivita, Mr. Trump’s former campaign adviser, who taunted the lawmaker with “tick tock Tommie,” on social media.
“Someone thinks they can control my voting card by threatening my re-election. Guess what? Doesn’t work on me,” Mr. Massie said. “Three times I’ve had a challenger who tried to be more MAGA than me. None busted 25% because my constituents prefer transparency and principles over blind allegiance.”
House Republicans are expected to vote on the bill Tuesday evening, and are still whipping votes to support it. Vice President J.D. Vance is meeting with the House GOP ahead of the vote to try to persuade lawmakers on the fence to support it.
House Democrats are expected to widely vote against it, and their leadership is urging members of the Democratic rank-and-file to fall in line.
Even if the president, vice president and Mr. Johnson, Louisiana Republican, are successful in their push to pass the bill through the House, it will move on to a Senate where Democratic votes are needed to pass it.
Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican, has vowed to vote against the measure, meaning at least eight Senate Democrats will have to vote in favor of it for the CR to pass.
Mr. Paul argued that the bill continues to “fund the very foreign aid [Elon Musk] proposes to cut,” and continues spending levels set by former President Joe Biden and Democrats.
“Count me as a hell no,” he posted on X.
