Capitol Stories: The dispute between Donald Trump and a Republican congressman

There have always been frictions between actors of the legislative power and the executive power. In Washington today perhaps the end of a long and intense dispute is unfolding (that has been going on for years) between President Donald Trump and Republican Congressman, Thomas Massie. 

Massie has represented Kentucky's 4th district since 2013. His long legislative career has given him the ability to operate with a high level of autonomy in the U.S. House of Representatives, exerting influence among his peers and achieving a level of recognition that has helped him, among other things, secure a place on the powerful House Rules Committee. 

To understand the escalation of tension between President Trump and a mere congressman from his party, one must see the difficulty the Republican Party faces today in passing laws. Although the Republican Party controls both chambers of Congress, its supremacy in the House of Representatives is thin.

Of the 435 congressmen, the Republican Party has 218. Considering that Speaker Mike Johnson (Republican) doesn't vote, Trump's party's legislative goals can falter with just three defections. In other words, Trump can't afford to lose his own votes. 

The battle between Massie and Trump is longstanding. In February 2019, during Trump's first presidency, Massie announced on "X" that he would vote for a House resolution preventing the president from using a national emergency declaration to reallocate funds for the construction of the wall. 

Massie justified himself on Twitter at the time by saying, "If we violate the Constitution to build a wall, then the wall protects nothing." 

In 2023, during the penultimate year of Democrat Joe Biden's administration, the rivalry increased.

Massie became the second Republican congressman to publicly support Ron DeSantis's presidential candidacy, the governor of Florida and at the time Trump's strongest rival for the Republican nomination in 2024. 

At the start of Donald Trump's second presidency, one of the party's first challenges was gathering the votes to re-elect Johnson as Speaker of the House. The frictions within the GOP had already made this goal difficult in 2023, following the removal of Kevin McCarthy.

Not long ago, last January, Johnson once again secured the necessary votes to validate himself as the head of the legislative body, but with a single defection from his own ranks: Thomas Massie. 

After Massie's negative vote on Johnson's candidacy for the position he holds today, the latter decided to remove Massie from the most important committee in the House: The Rules Committee, which decides what reaches the floor for a subsequent vote. After this event, Massie continued to show signs of rebellion, which culminated this week. 

Johnson ordered the Republican Party to vote on a resolution that extended government funding until September 2025, thus avoiding a "Government Shutdown." Congressman Thomas Massie was the only Republican who voted against the project to prevent the government shutdown. The resolution was finally voted on and is now awaiting the Senate to complete its passage. 

Trump chose the Truth Social network to congratulate Speaker Johnson for this vote and lashed out at Massie, labeling him as a "No on everything," and forewarning him that he should face a primary next year when Massie must revalidate his position. As if that weren't enough, Trump announced he would lead the charge against Massie.

It remains to be seen if Trump's public warning to Massie's caucus will materialize or will be a way to straighten out a congressman who has historically operated independently.

The surname Massie could join a list of congressmen who were once influential, like Liz Cheney or Bob Good, but after breaking with the president, their political decline has come.