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EXCLUSIVE: Rep. Thomas Massie is accusing President Donald Trump of falling wanting his marketing campaign pledges along with his Saturday-night strikes on Iran.
“I really feel a bit misled,” Massie instructed Fox Information Digital in a Sunday afternoon interview. “I did not assume he would let neocons decide his international coverage and drag us into one other warfare.”
“Different individuals really feel the identical manner, who supported Trump — I feel the political hazard to him is he induces a level of apathy within the Republican base, and so they fail to point out as much as hold us within the majority within the midterms.”
Massie, a conservative libertarian who has lengthy been cautious of international intervention by the U.S., has been probably the most vocal critics of the Trump administration’s latest operation.
RUBIO DECLARES IRAN’S DAYS OF ‘PLAYING THE WORLD’ OVER AFTER TRUMP’S DECISIVE STRIKE
Rep. Thomas Massie stated he’s searching for methods to pressure a vote on his Struggle Powers decision. (Win McNamee/Pool/AFP through Getty Photographs; Kevin Dietsch/Getty Photographs)
U.S. stealth bombers struck three main nuclear enrichment services in Iran Saturday night time.
Trump and different GOP leaders hailed the operation as a victory, whereas even pro-Israel Democrats additionally provided uncommon reward.
“Iran’s nuclear enrichment services have been utterly and completely obliterated,” Trump stated Saturday night time. “And Iran, the bully of the Center East, should now make peace. If they don’t, future assaults can be far higher and lots simpler.”
However progressives and the rising isolationist wing of the GOP blasted it as a useless escalation of tensions within the Center East, at a time when Israel has been engaged in a weeklong battle with Iran as nicely.
High officers as much as Trump himself have stated the U.S. shouldn’t be searching for warfare with Iran.
Vice President JD Vance instructed NBC Information’ “Meet The Press” Sunday, “We’re not at warfare with Iran. We’re at warfare with Iran’s nuclear program.”
Massie instructed Fox Information Digital these assurances have been “ludicrous.”
DEMOCRATIC LAWMAKERS CRITICIZE ISRAEL’S DEFENSIVE STRIKES AGAINST IRAN’S NUCLEAR SITES
“He is engaged in warfare. We are actually a co-belligerent in a scorching warfare between two international locations,” the Kentucky Republican stated, arguing that battle separates this motion from Trump’s strikes that killed deceased Iranian Normal Qassem Soleimani.
“You possibly can’t say this is not an act of warfare, that it is a strike outdoors of a warfare,” he stated. “That is inside, geographically and temporally, of a warfare.”
The Kentucky Republican notably has damaged from Trump on a number of different events and has been one of many few GOP officers to brazenly conflict with the president — notably on authorities spending and international intervention.
President Donald Trump addressed the nation after the strikes on June 21, 2025. (Pool)
He is co-leading a decision to stop the “United States Armed Forces from unauthorized hostilities within the Islamic Republic of Iran” alongside Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., which they launched days earlier than the strikes. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., is main a Senate counterpart.
Massie famous that his staff was methods to get the decision on the Home ground — whereas conceding probably opposition from pro-Israel teams and congressional leaders.
“We will attempt to use the privileges of the Home to get this to the ground,” he stated.
“Folks have been saying, ‘Why did you introduce this decision? The president’s not going to strike Iran.’ He has struck Iran. And now the naysayers stated, ‘Oh, nicely, you do not want this decision.”
ISRAEL-IRAN WAR DIVIDES DEMOCRATS, BUT TRUMP’S DIPLOMACY ALSO SPLITTING REPUBLICANS
Secretary of Protection Pete Hegseth stated throughout a Sunday morning press convention that the administration had correctly notified Congress in regards to the strikes inside current statute — at the same time as progressives and a few conservatives accuse him of bypassing a co-equal department of presidency.
“They have been notified after the planes have been safely out,” Hegseth stated. “We complied with the notification necessities of the Struggle Powers Act.”
However Massie famous that that legislation additionally requires Congress to vote on U.S. navy intervention in international international locations inside 60 days, if the battle continues.
“Even when they’re in a position to circumvent a vote on the decision that Ro Khanna and I’ve launched, we will should vote sooner or later if this turns into a protracted engagement,” he stated.
Struggle powers resolutions might be referred to as up for a Home vote after 15 days of inaction by the related committee, after the laws is referred to that committee.
When reached for remark, the White Home pointed Fox Information Digital to Trump’s most up-to-date Fact Social publish calling Massie a “grandstander” and threatening to recruit a major challenger towards him.
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“Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky shouldn’t be MAGA, despite the fact that he likes to say he’s,” Trump wrote. “Truly, MAGA doesn’t need him, doesn’t know him, and doesn’t respect him. He’s a detrimental pressure who nearly all the time Votes ‘NO,’ regardless of how good one thing could also be.”
“MAGA ought to drop this pathetic LOSER, Tom Massie, just like the plague! The excellent news is that we’ll have a beautiful American Patriot working towards him within the Republican Main, and I’ll be out in Kentucky campaigning actually laborious. MAGA shouldn’t be about lazy, grandstanding, nonproductive politicians, of which Thomas Massie is certainly one. Thanks to our unimaginable navy for the AMAZING job they did final night time. It was actually SPECIAL!!!”
Fox Information Digital additionally reached out to Speaker Mike Johnson’s workplace for remark.
