Trump's national poll numbers are in the toilet. His MAGA cult just proved they don't care. In Kentucky last night, GOP voters obediently fired Rep. Thomas Massie, the seven-term libertarian who committed the unforgivable sin of having a spine.
His crimes? Co-sponsoring the Epstein Files Transparency Act with Democrat Ro Khanna. Voting against Trump's billionaire tax giveaway. Refusing to cheerlead the war with Iran.
Trump personally recruited his replacement, Ed Gallrein, in an Oval Office meeting last October. He endorsed Gallrein before the guy even officially entered the race.
The contest became the most expensive House primary in American history, hitting $32 million in ad spending.
AIPAC's super PAC and two allied pro-Israel groups poured more than $15.8 million into ousting Massie, one of the few Republicans who ever questioned blank-check funding for foreign militaries. Trump's MAGA KY PAC, run by senior political adviser Chris LaCivita, dropped another $5.6 million, bankrolled by billionaires Paul Singer and Miriam Adelson
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth flew to Kentucky to campaign against a sitting Republican congressman.
And here's what you need to understand. Trump's net approval just hit a second-term low of negative 20. His handling of inflation polls at negative 42. Sixty-five percent of voters disapprove of his Iran war.
None of that mattered in Kentucky. Because the MAGA base doesn't punish failure. It punishes independence.
This is what one-man rule looks like when the cult fully takes hold. Step out of line and the billionaires and the propaganda machine come for your job. Toe the line and you're rewarded with a seat in Congress, bought and paid for by donors who've never set foot in your state.
Massie's seat got bought. The question is how many more are for sale.