Thomas Massie: The face of disillusionment with MAGA

The picture on the 3rd September of Democratic Liberal, Ro Khanna and libertarian GOP congressman, Thomas Massie, holding a press conference together demanding the immediate release of the entire “Epstein Files”, stood as a rare glimmer of limited bipartisan cooperation, in an era of tribalistic political divisions within America. What issue reconciled the interests of such diametrically opposed political figures into co-sponsoring a so-called “Epstein files transparency act” aimed at turning the administration's hand?

The answer stands in a developing cross-party weariness towards the Trump administration's handling of not only the Epstein files, a linchpin of conspiratorial grievances, but also the Trump administration's increasingly hawkish foreign policy that many, including Massie, believe transcends their strict view of Presidential authority. While a vitriolic approach to cooperation with Trump has been held by Democrats ever since his inauguration, this emergence of key GOP voices openly challenging Trump's actions points towards a new front in the opposition to Trump’s increasing unilateral approach to ruling, having emerged. The MAGA constitutionalists.

“That is not constitutional” , Massie bluntly exclaimed on X after the June 2025 bombing of Iranian enrichment sites. To Massie, a self-proclaimed “constitutional conservative”, this subversion of Congress was the embodiment of the problematic unitary approach that Trump was taking to his presidency. One of which diverged from his libertarian instincts of a small limited state, checks on power and unprovocative isolationism in foreign affairs. Massie was among various present but sporadic voices within the GOP willing to stand up to the Trumpian political machine on its subversion of the 1973 War Powers Act in this case. Among them was Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Georgia conspiracy theorist turned congresswoman, once seen as a loyal mouthpiece for the flexible, opportunistic views of the MAGA movement. But seemingly no longer so. Furthermore, as stated by Greene herself, the Iran bombing saw a return to the era of “neocons, warmongers and the military industrial complex”.

Here, the Massie-led “opposition” gains a certain logic. A certain apathy has been passed down from the Bush-era Republican rule, where, in unprecedented times, seemingly intrusive legislation was passed, such as the Patriot Act, and careless wars, such as Iraq, angered the cautious isolationist fringes of the GOP. In the contemporary anti-war pleas of Greene, Massie and fellow unlikely allies in Bernie Sanders and AOC, it seems the legacy of the last pre-Trump Republican president is catching up with the masses.

Now in similarly dangerous times, both in the USA and in foreign affairs, the ideology of Massie is lurching its head upon an ever greater number of lawmakers within the GOP.

Massie, a native of Kentucky and representative for its vast 4th district, stands as a unique figure in GOP internal dynamics. His support for Trump in 2016 was largely conditional; hinged on the conservative restraint that Mike Pence, a similar ideologue to Massie, would bring to the ticket. Yet with the GOP mainstream having shifted towards the populist, less ideological pure grounds of JD Vance, who, as seen in his blatant career opportunism, has little rigid ideological dogma, the likes of Massie have been left between a rock and a hard place.

For Massie’s traditionalist version of conservatism, the increasingly authoritarian means of Trump to pursue conservative goals like cutting the size of the government are alarming enough to nullify any pragmatic support for the movement. Massie, who until 2025 was subdued in criticism of Trump, is now a full-blown target for Trump’s vendetta against opponents. With the GOP establishment promising no support for his 2026 re-election campaign.

Yet, their willingness to stand up to the unconstitutional actions, that their un-ideological colleagues simply sit and defend, all points to a glimmer of hope for the post-Trump world of 2028.

Whilst the aforementioned lack of support for Massie’s political independence from the mainstream of the GOP firmly established his willingness to stand up to Trump as a fringe political inclination as of 2025, the foundations clearly are laid for an anti-MAGA revolt sometime in the coming future.

Exacerbated by the administration’s flip-flopping around the release of the Epstein files, a touchy subject for any Republican, nevertheless, the likes of Greene, the culminative actions of Trump’s second administration are beginning to mould strong voices of political independence and autonomy.

In the clique around Massie, a political wilderness is seemingly looming in the near future. Yet, their willingness to stand up to the unconstitutional actions that their un-

ideological colleagues simply sit and defend all points to a glimmer of hope for the post-Trump world of 2028.

Maybe then, Massie is not an independent enigma with a sour vendetta towards Trump, but instead a foundational figure representing the sustained presence of principled politicians willing to engage in Bipartisan negotiations in this era of MAGA-dominated politics that so often rely on division and rule-breaking to get their way.

No matter his political leanings, one must admire Massie’s throwback to an era of less divisive politics and his willingness to stand behind his deeply rooted principles.

Is a coalition in the works? Can the GOP ticket of 2028 stand in the image of Massie to a certain degree? No matter his political leanings, one must admire Massie’s throwback

to an era of less divisive politics and his willingness to stand behind his deeply rooted principles. In Massie’s stand, not speculative political aspirations for higher office, a political hope for America exists.

By James Hood

Image: National File