As President Donald Trump’s approval ratings continue to sink to historic lows and his party faces a potential slaughter in the upcoming midterm elections, would Republicans’ prospects be better today if he had acted more like Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY)?
Would Trump’s own approval numbers be better?
These might sound like strange questions given the current political and seemingly personal chasm between the president and the congressman today, particularly after the former joined with billionaire Zionist donors to oust the latter—a war opponent and Israel critic—in his May GOP Kentucky primary, the most expensive in U.S. history.
Still, it’s a more practical question than some might realize. A brief history:
In 2020, Trump called for Massie to be kicked out of the Republican party, outraged over the Kentucky congressman’s opposition to a $2 trillion coronavirus relief package.
Trump loathing Massie—that’s familiar.
But by 2022, tensions had eased, and Trump endorsed Massie as a “Conservative Warrior” who “fights hard to Protect your Liberties.”
Trump and Massie were on the same page, promoting a shared America First agenda.
In 2024, Massie returned the favor with a late endorsement of Trump (Massie was originally a supporter of Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis in that year’s GOP presidential primary), saying, “Donald Trump will put Americans first by securing our liberties at home and preventing needless wars abroad. He will Make America Great Again by empowering small farmers and taking on special interests.”
Massie had a point at the time. Two years ago, Trump did campaign on putting America first and securing liberties at home, as well as other original MAGA-and-Massie-friendly promises like drastically cutting government, protecting free speech, no new wars, and putting the neocons out to pasture.
Today, it’s a very different picture. The American people no longer seem like a priority. The president and other prominent Republicans tell Americans to endure high gas prices to support their Middle East war, even as Trump-voting truckers are irate over the Iran war and the accompanying spike in diesel costs. Elon Musk’s one-time radical government revamp DOGE is a distant memory. Republicans now regularly assault the First Amendment.
The U.S. is in an open-ended war in Iran, an ongoing failure that not only is likely to define Trump’s legacy but became the fulfillment of most neoconservatives’ lifelong dream.
Trump didn’t defeat the neocons—he gave them the gift of the war they most wanted, and he arguably has become a neocon himself, now regularly sharing on social media the alleged wisdom of Bush-Cheney retreads like Marc Thiessen and Israel-first pundits like Mark Levin and Ben Shapiro.
Goodbye, OG antiwar MAGA voices Tucker Carlson and Marjorie Taylor Greene. Hello, warmongers Laura Loomer and Lindsey Graham.
To be fair, Trump also had promised to secure the border—and on that, he has delivered. But beyond that particular issue, the Make America Great Again coalition that elected Trump has been shattered mostly over a sense of betrayal over the issues listed here and others.
This sad state is what likely prompted the popular X account Being Libertarian to share recently an old photo of Massie and Trump together in friendlier times. The caption read:
In an alternate timeline, Trump takes a liking to Thomas Massie, lobbies for him to replace Mike Johnson, the Epstein criminals are in jail, Bibi is fending for himself, DOGE is codified, the Department of Education doesn’t exist, farmers are happy, and the GOP wins in 2026.
It’s a fair point. What might a more Massiesque timeline have looked like today, according to polls?
The over six-month Iran war is now so unpopular that even many Republican candidates are running away from it. Real Clear’s polling average shows Trump’s handling of Iran is at 32.6 percent approval and 62.5 percent disapproval. That’s a net disapproval rating of almost negative 30 percentage points.
That’s not good. Americans didn’t vote for an endless war when they elected Trump in 2024. Quite the opposite. But their country seems to be in one now.
Another indicator of how unpopular the war is came earlier this month. Massie moved to impeach Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth for his handling of Iran. The White House and Republicans rhetorically dismissed the move as meaningless symbolism, yet Speaker Mike Johnson appeared to cut down congressional time to avoid a vote.
An Economist/You Gov poll found that 51 percent of respondents supported Hegseth’s impeachment. So Massie’s effort was not exactly “grandstanding” but giving voice to real public frustration with current foreign policy.
It’s not just the war where Massie seemed to pick the winning horse. The congressman’s calls for greater transparency regarding the Epstein files, which Trump promised he would declassify before dragging his feet and lashing out once in the White House, have not been a good look for the president.
Again, on the U.S.-Israel relationship Massie was ahead of the curve. Newsweek reported earlier this month that, “Only 26 percent of Americans approved of Trump’s handling of the investigations into Epstein, compared to 57 percent disapproving, according to a YouGov poll released earlier this year.”
“Sixty-eight percent said they believed the government was covering up evidence it has about Epstein,” the report noted.
Polls show Americans having increasingly negative views toward Israel, and a July Economist/YouGov poll found that half of Americans think Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should be arrested for war crimes.
Massie has been a critic of what he calls the U.S.-funded “genocide” being carried out by Israel in Gaza. A September Quinnipiac poll showed that now more Americans sympathized with the Palestinians than the Israelis.
While views on Trump’s tariffs might vary here at The American Conservative, Massie has been a staunch opponent. A Cato Institute/Morning Consult poll this month found that “three in four (75%) say tariffs will be important to their vote in this November’s midterm elections” and that 74 percent “say that Trump’s tariffs increased the prices of things they buy at the store, including 66% of Republicans and 84% of Democrats.”
Even so, the Kentucky farmer Massie has been outspoken in opposition to the president’s schemes to import more foreign beef to lower costs ahead of the midterms. Newsweek reported Saturday, “President Donald Trump’s net approval rating has fallen across 10 major beef-producing states in the month since he announced a temporary increase in beef import quotas designed to bring down the cost of beef, according to polling data.”
“Trump’s net approval rating declined between August 21 and September 21 in Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Texas,” Newsweek observed.
Trump’s numbers shouldn’t be dropping by double digits in Oklahoma and Texas. Or in Massie’s home of Kentucky.
On so many issues where candidate Trump once promised to put American voters first, the president now finds himself occupying the unpopular position, while Massie has stuck to the position that has ultimately proved more popular. These are just a few.
Amusingly, some jittery conservatives are now saying that if Republicans do poorly in November it will be the fault of dissidents like Massie and his libertarian supporters who didn’t bother to show up at the polls. Trump made a play for libertarian voters in 2024 with some success, and even made good on his promise to pardon imprisoned Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht, a longstanding libertarian goal.
But if Republicans are massacred in a few weeks, it won’t be because libertarians are finicky. That’s laughable.
It’s also deflection. As Massie wrote on X Sunday, “Economic fallout of the Iran War and withholding Epstein Files are dragging down Republicans in the midterms.”
“There’s a month remaining to change these policies, but Republicans are determined to go down with the ship,” he added. “Are they even in charge?”
Good question. Many Republicans and even Trump now seem completely bewildered over how unpopular they’ve become. They shouldn’t be. Their policies are far removed from America-First promises that had energized a once-in-a-lifetime, winning MAGA movement.
Americans aren’t confused. They’re mad. They know exactly what’s happened and who made it happen.
So does Thomas Massie.
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