You can always tell a Trump presidency is back in full swing when he drops bombs one day and burns bridges the next. After launching a surprise airstrike on Iranian nuclear facilities—without Congressional approval and with all the subtlety of a toddler with a matchbook—Trump took a victory lap so wide it flattened anyone who dared question him. Chief among the flattened? Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky, one of the few Republicans left who appears to have read the Constitution.
Now, let’s be clear. Massie is no liberal darling. This isn’t some Bernie-turned-MAGA crossover moment. He’s a staunch libertarian with the consistency of an old-school pocket watch: annoying, principled, and immune to modern calibration. He votes “no” on basically everything, and that includes wars. So when Trump took his shiny new Operation Midnight Hammer for a joyride over Iran and Massie raised an eyebrow—an entirely legal, warranted, very-American eyebrow—Trump lost his mind. Or what’s left of it.
In a rambling Truth Social post that reads like a Yelp review written by a gladiator, Trump called Massie a “grandstander,” a “lightweight,” and “not MAGA,” which we now know is the new scarlet letter. Forget due process, checks and balances, or national security oversight—those are for losers. Trump declared the airstrike a “spectacular military success” and insisted it was a “complete WIN,” which is how you know something is very, very wrong.
But here’s the kicker. Trump then claimed Massie supports Iran’s nuclear ambitions, doesn’t respect the military, and would rather let the Ayatollah throw a nuke into Kansas than admit Trump did something “special.” And if that’s not enough projection to qualify as a 3D movie, he wrapped it all up with a vague, ominous promise that MAGA would primary Massie with a “real patriot.” Which in this case probably means someone who thinks foreign policy means waving at flags on Google Earth.
This whole tantrum is so on-brand, it could be merch. Trump has always believed loyalty means obedience, and he’s weaponized that belief to create the most ironically named movement in history. “Make America Great Again” now translates to “Shut up, agree with me, and wear a red hat while I destabilize the planet.” If you speak out—on war, on spending, on basic governance—you’re labeled a traitor to the cause. A cause, by the way, that no one can actually define without sounding like they’ve just hit their head on a flagpole.
What makes this all the more infuriating is how brazen it is. Trump didn’t just bypass Congress to launch military action—he did it with a name like Operation Midnight Hammer, which sounds like either a Grindr profile or a rejected Vin Diesel script. And of course, he followed it up with one of his classic contradictions: after a full-scale bombing campaign, he declared “now is the time for peace,” as if violence is just a more festive form of diplomacy.
Meanwhile, Massie did what we’re all supposed to do in a democratic society—question power. He raised concerns about war powers, process, and oversight. But instead of inspiring debate, Trump treated it like betrayal. Because when your presidency runs on vibes, anyone with a functioning frontal lobe is a threat.
And let’s not ignore the cowardice of the rest of the party. They watched Trump light the fuse and said nothing. They saw him detonate American credibility overseas and shrugged. They read his hissy-fit about Massie and quietly retweeted it. Because if there’s one thing modern conservatism has mastered, it’s pretending that chaos is strategy as long as it polls well in Ohio.
This isn’t just dysfunction. It’s deeply unserious governance masquerading as patriotic fervor. We now live in a country where the president can launch missiles and then publicly cyberbully his own party for not clapping hard enough. Where dissent is met not with debate, but with memes and threats of political exile. Where being “not MAGA” is more offensive than being corrupt, cruel, or criminal.
Trump’s post should’ve been a national scandal. Instead, it was Tuesday.
So where does that leave us? With a potential global conflict brewing, oil prices already inching toward “don’t even look at the pump,” and a president who thinks Congressional oversight is just a buzzkill. It leaves us with a House more afraid of tweets than treaties, and a movement more interested in fealty than facts.
And it leaves Thomas Massie, of all people, standing there like the ghost of Republican Past—clutching the Constitution and wondering why everyone’s staring at him like he farted in a war room.
The truth is, Massie’s not wrong. You can’t bomb a sovereign nation without Congress and call it freedom. You can’t silence disagreement and call it patriotism. And you sure as hell can’t threaten your own party for doing what the founders literally wrote in ink, on parchment, under threat of death.
But in Trump’s America, truth is whatever he posted five minutes ago. Today, it’s Massie. Tomorrow, it’ll be someone else. Because Trump’s loyalty is a one-way street, and it’s paved with the bones of anyone who dares to remember how democracy is supposed to work.
Godspeed, Tom. You’re not MAGA anymore. You’re something far worse: principled.
And that’s the real threat.