Trump has ‘alienated’ voters ahead of midterms, Thomas Massie warns after primary loss

Donald Trump’s Republican party is on course for a damaging rejection at the ballot box in November, according to a maverick US congressman ousted by a challenger handpicked by the president.

Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky, became the latest of Trump’s targets to be defeated in the party’s primaries this week. He had repeatedly broken with the president over military action against Iran, government spending and the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files.

As control of US Congress hangs in the balance, Massie warned on Sunday that Trump has “disenfranchised” many of the Americans who voted for him – and their party – in November 2024.

The libertarian-minded congressman, who will remain in the House of Representatives for the rest of year, promised to stay engaged in politics, even if “it’s from the outside”, and expressed no regrets for the actions that angered Trump, even though they helped prompt his defeat.

“It was completely worth it,” Massie told Meet the Press on NBC. “And I’ve got seven more months to keep going against the grain, which means voting for principles and for people over party.”

In a nod to “Trump derangement syndrome”, the label frequently used by the president to accuse his critics of an obsession with him, Massie said: “There’s a growing number of people on the right who have a form of TDS called Trump disappointment syndrome.

“And I think what’s going to happen to the party this fall, is they’ve disenfranchised a large portion of that constituency that Trump assembled to get us in the White House, in the Senate majority, and in the House majority.”

Massie pointed to several significant constituencies – including “Make America healthy again” campaigners, fiscal hawks pushing for sweeping government budget cuts, and voters who don’t want the US engaged in wars – who he claimed had been “alienated” by the administration’s actions. “And so, I’m worried that in November, this is going to a lot.”