President Donald Trump lit up his social feed with a late-night broadside at Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), branding the libertarian-leaning conservative “a Weak and Pathetic RINO” and urging a primary challenger to take him out “ASAP.” The outburst comes as Massie leads a rare right-left alliance to force a House vote on releasing more Justice Department records tied to Jeffrey Epstein, a push that has GOP leaders sweating and the White House fuming.
In the same post, he practically drafted retired Navy SEAL and fifth-generation Kentucky farmer Ed Gallrein to jump into the race, praising him as a “true America First Patriot” and signaling his “Complete and Total Endorsement” should Gallrein run. Gallrein hasn’t officially announced, but he acknowledged the encouragement and said he’ll “make an announcement” soon. Local outlets note he lost a 2024 GOP state senate primary but retains strong ties in Kentucky’s 4th District.
Why the sudden heat? Massie has become the unexpected point man on the so-called “Epstein Files” rebellion. He’s hustling signatures for a discharge petition, a rarely used maneuver that bypasses leadership, to force a vote compelling broader disclosure of DOJ materials connected to Epstein and his network. As of late September, Massie said he was close to the magic number of 218 signers.
Enter Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), who is catching flak for something else entirely that could also tip the scales: his refusal to swear in Arizona Democrat Adelita Grijalva. She is widely seen as a likely 218th “yes” on the discharge effort, and her absence narrows the path for Massie’s bipartisan coalition. Arizona’s attorney general is preparing to sue, and Grijalva has publicly showcased the surreal limbo of having an office but no vote. The optics for leadership are, at best, awkward.
Meanwhile, pressure to cough up more Epstein-related material is only rising. The House Oversight Committee just released another tranche of documents, including logs, interviews, and schedules that reignited questions about who enabled Epstein and how his 2008 plea deal came to be. That drip-drip of disclosures bolsters the argument from Massie and a handful of Republicans that Congress, not DOJ, should decide how much the public gets to see.
Team Trump is trying to shut that door before it swings open. His post attacking Massie wasn’t subtle and wasn’t a one-off. It fits a pattern of threatening disfavored Republicans with MAGA-backed primary challenges, then elevating a rival who checks every cultural box. Gallrein’s résumé, SEAL, farmer, small-businessman, reads like it was designed for a Kentucky primary mailer, and conservative outlets are already amplifying his would-be campaign.
Massie, for his part, is leaning into the fight. He’s mocked the would-be challengers and used Trump’s attacks to turbocharge fundraising, posting his strongest quarter yet. If the discharge petition hits 218, and if Grijalva is finally sworn in, the House could soon be forced into an up-or-down moment on Epstein transparency that neither Johnson nor Trump wants on the calendar.
Trump needs absolute discipline from House Republicans as his administration navigates shutdown fallout, court battles, and a rolling series of controversies. Massie’s revolt threatens that narrative, especially when paired with headlines about fresh Epstein documents and a speaker bottling up a member-elect who would almost certainly vote to pry more loose. That is why the former dealmaker-in-chief is now playing precinct captain, begging a Navy SEAL to “RUN, ED, RUN.”
