Rep. Thomas Massie said Sunday he would not rule out a run for president in 2028, days after losing a primary to former Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein. Asked whether he was considering a White House bid, the Kentucky Republican said, “I will not rule out anything, and right now, I’m not going to rule in anything.”
Massie said the loss had left him with more room to think about what comes next. “Every hour that passes, I get decompressed a little bit more,” he said. “It’s like coming up from the bottom of the ocean, and I’ll take some time and decide what’s next, but I think I will stay engaged in some way or shape.” He added, “Maybe it’s from the outside.”
The comments came on Sunday, a week after Massie was defeated in a primary by Gallrein, who had the backing of Donald Trump. Trump had repeatedly attacked Massie in public and urged supporters to vote him out, turning the race into another test of the president’s power over Republican candidates. Massie, for his part, said his split with Trump was “absolutely worth it for me,” even if he believed the damage would land elsewhere.
“It’s true, you can take out Republicans in primaries, but Republicans are going to be very vulnerable this fall,” Massie said. He warned that the party had left itself exposed and said Republicans were worried about their own political mortality. He also said the party had disenfranchised a large portion of the constituency Trump assembled to win the White House, the Senate majority and the House majority, adding, “I don’t think it’s going to be worth it for the party,” and describing the dynamic as “Trump Disappointment Syndrome.”
That warning lands as Republicans head toward the midterm election cycle with Trump still dominating the party’s internal politics. Massie has broken with the administration on issues including the war in Iran and its handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, making him one of the most persistent Republican critics of the president’s orbit.
He also took aim at Trump’s push around the White House ballroom project, calling the president’s focus on the construction “a slap in the face of Americans” and saying the ballroom was “such an egregious waste of money.” Massie said Trump was bragging about Roman architecture while the country was operating like a Roman Empire, a line that fit his broader criticism of spending priorities in Washington.
This month, Republicans tried to pass $1 billion in taxpayer funds for security related to the ballroom construction, a fight that underscored how quickly the dispute had moved from rhetoric to federal dollars. Massie said he has been exposing what is going on in Washington for years and would keep doing it. For now, he said, the next move is not decided — but he made clear he is not done with politics, and a 2028 run is no longer off the table.
