Kentucky’s Thomas Massie, a provocateur libertarian and professional pain-in-the-butt to House leadership and Donald Trump, lost his primary yesterday. That was a foregone conclusion given how Trump’s endorsements have won primaries almost across the board.
Those endorsements are going to come back and haunt the GOP in November, but that’s another story for another time.
Back to Massie. He is now a lame duck. And with 36 Republican House members and seven Republican senators already choosing not to seek reelection, there is a growing class of Republicans in Congress with nothing left to lose.
So here’s my question for all of them: What the hell are you waiting for? Grow some and turn your cloakroom whispers about Trump into loud screams to remove him from office. Finally!
Call them the Massies and Cassidys, the GOP members who are done, departing, or already in the crosshairs of a MAGA primary. Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who lost his primary last week, just voted with Democrats on a resolution to end Trump’s war on Iran, a disastrous military engagement launched without congressional authorization — which is to say illegally.
Massie has been a lonely voice of dissent for years. These are men who clearly see what’s happening. Massie knows what’s in the hearts of some of these departing members. They just won’t say it out loud, not loudly enough, not together, and not in a way that actually matters.
Massie in the House and Cassidy in the Senate can help change that now, before it’s too late.
Trump is quickly going off the rails and barreling toward autocracy at the speed of light. Let’s tick through what this president has done in recent weeks, because the pace of brazen lawbreaking has become staggering.
Start with the nearly $1.8 billion slush fund, money being made available to Trump’s friends, donors, and yes, January 6 insurrectionists. This is an illegal and stunning grift conducted in broad daylight, a corrupt reward system so far-fetched it would embarrass a banana republic dictator.
And just as unbelievable, the Department of Justice's move to permanently shield Donald Trump, his family, and his businesses from IRS audits essentially means they don’t pay taxes. How can GOP members sleep at night knowing something like this?
Just for these, Trump could be impeached.
Then there are the outrageous stock trades. Trump’s latest financial disclosures show that he or his investment advisers made more than 3,700 trades in the first quarter. That’s more than some financial firms make in a quarter. It is breathtakingly corrupt.
These trades total tens of millions of dollars and involve major companies with dealings before his administration and companies he’s overtly endorsed from the Oval Office. Wall Street insiders were stunned. Matthew Tuttle, chief executive officer of Tuttle Capital Management, called it “an insane amount of trades,” adding that it looked more like something done by “a hedge fund with massive algo trades” than a personal account.
Trump scooped up shares of AI software maker Palantir weeks before he lauded the stock by name on Truth Social. He purchased Nvidia stock just a week before Nvidia announced a major deal with Meta, and bought AMD stock just before the Commerce Department approved AMD chip sales to China.
Just for this, Trump could be impeached.
Then there’s the war with Iran, launched singularly and illegally by Trump without congressional authorization, in violation of the War Powers Act. Cassidy saw it. He voted to push back. Where are the rest of the dozens of Republicans who are on their way out the door?
Just for this, Trump could be impeached.
And let’s not forget the construction of the White House ballroom, which could cost taxpayers close to a billion dollars. That too is illegal, at least in my view and in the view of many others, including a federal judge who ruled the project likely requires congressional approval.
Again, just for this, Trump could be impeached.
Or consider the collapse of alliances with democratic partners across Europe and Asia, systematically torched by a president who openly coddles thugs like Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin while treating NATO allies like garbage.
For traditional Republican members of Congress, who value a strong diplomacy-driven foreign policy, this has to be something they want to rectify immediately. Every day is a lost opportunity to mend fences.
Trump’s behavior is accelerating, and as he approaches 80, questions about his mental acuity, his stability, and his grip on reality grow with every passing day.
His overall health is openly discussed by people around him.
Republicans in Congress have been whispering about all of this. In private. Off the record. Never on camera, never on the House and Senate floors. The country deserves to know how members really feel.
Yes, the conventional Beltway wisdom says wait for the midterms, wait for Democrats to take back the House and Senate, then impeach. And maybe that’s how it goes. But given the speed at which Trump is becoming a king, why not now?
Seven Republican senators are walking out the door. If even a fraction of them found their nerve, found each other, and found Democratic partners willing to move, impeachment proceedings could begin now.
Republican congressional leadership has spent years rolling over, playing dead, and handing Trump everything he’s demanded. It would be the biggest middle finger to this ongoing spineless accommodation that Washington has seen in a generation.
And if they want to be selfish about it, they can dump Trump now in an effort to save their party’s candidates around the country who will face the wrath of moderate Republicans and independent voters.
The call of history is on the side of the Massies and Cassidys. They have nothing left to lose politically. They have everything to gain morally. And the country, whatever is left of its democratic institutions, is running out of time.
Step up. Speak out. Do the right thing while you still can.
