2026年5月14日 美国东部时间上午5:00 / CNN
作者：杰夫·泽莱尼
唐纳德·特朗普国会新闻
2026年4月15日，华盛顿特区德克森参议院办公大楼，众议员托马斯·马西在参议院国土安全与政府事务委员会第二修正案听证会上发言。
卢克·约翰逊/盖蒂图片社
肯塔基州万斯堡——
乔尼·普感觉自己被困在了总统和她的国会议员之间激烈的家族争斗中。
作为一名忠诚的共和党人，她两人都喜欢——而这正是她困境的开端。
没有任何共和党人比众议员托马斯·马西更激怒总统唐纳德·特朗普，这让马西在周二肯塔基州共和党初选前夕陷入了岌岌可危的境地。这场竞选已经是史上花费最昂贵的初选之一，仅广告开支就超过2900万美元，这将是马西有史以来面临的最严峻政治考验。
他们长期以来的较量将由普这样的选民来裁决，普过去十年一直支持特朗普，而支持马西的时间则长得多。
“我比以往任何时候都更为他担心，因为他遭到了特朗普如此强烈的反对，”普说。“我完全没有贬低特朗普的意思，我非常支持他，但我还是会投票给托马斯。他是个很棒的人，在如何使用纳税人的钱方面非常谨慎。”
在肯塔基州东北部，选民们表示，竞选活动的恶劣程度与日俱增，人工智能生成图像的攻击性广告充斥电视屏幕，传单塞满邮箱，关于哪一方占据上风的八卦也甚嚣尘上。
“你根本躲不开，到处都是，”普谈到铺天盖地的广告时说。“这才是真正让我担忧的地方。我担心他这次撑不过去。我认为他从未经历过这样的事情。”
马西的对手是埃德·高尔林，一名农场主、前海豹突击队队员，由特朗普及其盟友招募参选。特朗普今年3月到访肯塔基州，将高尔林请到台上，明确表达了自己的选择。
“找个普通人来击败马西，”特朗普说。“我找到了这样一个普通人，但他拥有聪明的头脑，是伟大的爱国者。他太棒了。”
2026年3月11日，肯塔基州希伯伦市维斯普物流中心，共和党肯塔基州国会候选人埃德·高尔林在唐纳德·特朗普总统出席活动时发言。
安德鲁·哈尼克/盖蒂图片社
数月来，马西一直表现得信心满满，认为自己在肯塔基州第四国会选区邻里和朋友中特立独行的形象能帮助他赢得第八个任期。蓝色的马西竞选标语牌遍布他的选区，该选区沿俄亥俄河分布，从路易斯维尔东部郊区延伸至辛辛那提北部肯塔基州郊区以及阿巴拉契亚山脉外围地区。
但共和党战略家和政党官员表示，在竞选的最后几天，这场竞争的差距异常微小，甚至一些长期盟友都在质疑局势是否已经逆转。
“这场竞选百分百是特朗普对阵马西，”肯顿县共和党主席沙恩·诺伊姆告诉CNN。“这已经到了必须选边站的时刻。”
“这个叫托马斯·马西的家伙”
很难确切界定特朗普和马西的关系究竟何时开始恶化。马西自14年前以茶党时代的赤字鹰派身份赢得席位以来，就一直在对抗两党建制派。
他一贯反对国会中的共和党优先事项，包括军事开支和对外援助，并在一项又一项法案上违抗政党领导层。去年，他是两名投票反对特朗普大规模国内政策和开支削减法案《一揽子美好法案》的众议院共和党人之一。
“除了这个叫托马斯·马西的家伙，我们会获得全票支持，”今年早些时候在全国祈祷早餐会上特朗普说道，随后还称这位国会议员是“蠢货”。
“他们就是喜欢投反对票，就爱这么干。”
马西还带头推动司法部公布对已定罪性犯罪者杰弗里·爱泼斯坦的调查档案。在特朗普将该问题斥为“民主党骗局”数月后，总统最终签署了《爱泼斯坦文件透明度法案》。
“政府有三个部门，我们应该相互监督，”马西在国会大厦外与爱泼斯坦性侵幸存者合影时说道。“今天我们在这座人民之家所做的就是这件事。”
2025年9月3日，美国国会大厦外，众议员托马斯·马西与杰弗里·爱泼斯坦的受害者们一同出席新闻发布会并发言。
奇普·索莫德维拉/盖蒂图片社
他还是共和党中对伊朗战争最直言不讳的批评者之一，称这使他成为以色列强硬支持者的目标。
白宫内部的顾问表示，两党中几乎没有任何政治人物——当然更不用说共和党人——比马西更让特朗普恼火。10月17日，总统在椭圆形办公室会见了高尔林，敦促他挑战马西。一周后，高尔林宣布参选。
“我一生都致力于为国家服务，现在准备再次响应号召，”高尔林在宣布参选时说。“这个选区是特朗普的地盘。总统在国会不需要障碍——他需要后援。”
助手们表示，总统近几周频繁提及这场竞选，表达了击败这位七届国会议员的意图，以此向共和党人传递一个信号：反对特朗普就会付出代价。
上周印第安纳州选民支持特朗普背书的候选人，击败了在去年12月抵制白宫要求重新绘制国会选区地图的共和党人，特朗普高级顾问克里斯·拉西维塔随后在X平台上向马西发文称：“下一个就是你。”
“房间里的大象”
在他的一则收尾广告中，马西提醒选民，他经常与特朗普站在一起，急于强调自己的共和党资历，打消人们认为他会本能地反对特朗普的印象。
“我们就来谈谈房间里的大象吧，”马西说。“我同意唐纳德·特朗普总统的观点，远远多于分歧。清单很长：要求投票提供公民身份证明的《拯救美国法案》、停止移民福利、对抗觉醒议程、捍卫第二修正案、保护未出生胎儿的生命、加强边境安全。”
这与马西多年来一直宣扬、许多选民多年来一直支持的独立派和自由主义者形象相去甚远。
2024年，特朗普以67%的得票率拿下该选区，而马西则无人反对。
“社区里有很多人支持特朗普，也有很多人支持托马斯，”曾与马西一同在刘易斯县委员会任职的山羊养殖户、教师乔·本特利说。“他们性格不同，但非常相似。”
州众议员史蒂文·杜安是共和党人，也是马西的长期好友，今年也在参选。他表示，在选区挨家挨户拉票时，选民们反复提出一个问题。
州众议员史蒂夫·杜安表示，他交谈过的选民既支持唐纳德·特朗普总统，也支持众议员托马斯·马西——这让他们陷入两难，因为特朗普称马西是“失败者”，“对肯塔基州人民不忠”。
CNN
“我该如何调和这一点？特朗普不喜欢他，但我喜欢他，我不知道该怎么办，”杜安回忆起与共和党选民的对话时告诉CNN。“我总把这比作父母吵架。我们爱他们两个人。我们爱特朗普，也爱托马斯。”
然而，一些批评者更关注马西的投票记录，尤其是与肯塔基州相关的开支法案，而非他与特朗普之间长期存在的不和。
“托马斯·马西已经烧光了所有可能有助于他发挥作用的桥梁，”前卡温顿市议员史蒂夫·弗兰克说。“如果我们需要更多资金来修建我们一直争取的新桥，或是机场项目，或是解决当地举足轻重的货运行业监管问题，他根本不会得到听证机会。”
周二晚上计票结果出炉后，这场竞选的结果或许能让我们窥见，攻击性广告和总统的影响力能否胜过马西在肯塔基州这片土地上建立一生的人脉。
“我一辈子都认识他，我会为他投票，因为他的为人，”退休厨师、餐馆老板肯尼·克拉克斯顿在万斯堡散步时停下来说道。“他是这份工作的合适人选。特朗普或其他人说什么都不重要。”
与当地十多人——几乎所有人都投票支持过特朗普——的对话显示，他们对马西既有支持，也有担忧。几名居民私下里质疑，他们的国会议员能否抵挡住针对他的政治攻势。
拉蒙娜·比文斯却不在此列，她认为这些攻击可能会适得其反。
“我会投票给托马斯，因为特朗普对他太苛刻了，”比文斯在加里森短停餐厅一边抽着烟一边吃热狗时说。“我只是觉得这很荒唐。这就是政治，他们是在竞选公职。又不是互相厮杀。”
Trump vs. Massie becomes a loyalty test for Kentucky voters
May 14, 2026 5:00 AM ET / CNN
By Jeff Zeleny
Donald Trump Congressional news
Rep. Thomas Massie speaks during the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Second Amendment hearing, at the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, DC, on April 15.
Luke Johnson/Getty Images
Vanceburg, Kentucky—
Joni Pugh feels like she’s stuck in the middle of a bitter family feud between her president and her congressman.
As a loyal Republican, she likes them both – and that is where her predicament begins.
No Republican has infuriated President Donald Trump more than Rep. Thomas Massie, which has placed him in a precarious position heading into Tuesday’s Republican primary in Kentucky. The race is already one of the most expensive primary contests ever, with more than $29 million spent on advertising alone, setting up the biggest political test Massie has ever faced.
Their long-running duel will be settled by voters like Pugh, who has admired Trump for the last decade and Massie for much longer.
“I’m a little more worried than I’ve ever been for him because he’s getting such pushback from Trump,” Pugh said. “I’m not putting Trump down at all because I’m very much a fan of his, but I’m still going to vote for Thomas. He’s a great guy and is very careful about how he wants our taxpayer money to be spent.”
Here in northeastern Kentucky, voters say the campaign seems to be getting nastier by the day, with attack ads featuring AI-generated images flooding television screens, flyers filling up mailboxes and gossip running red-hot about the twists and turns of which side has the upper hand.
“You can’t escape it. It’s everywhere,” Pugh said of the advertising deluge. “That’s what really worries me. I’m afraid he won’t make it this time. I don’t think he’s ever gone through anything like this.”
Massie faces Ed Gallrein, a farmer and former Navy SEAL whom Trump and his allies recruited into the race. Trump paid a visit to Kentucky in March to make his choice clear as he invited Gallrein to the stage.
“Give me somebody with a warm body to beat Massie,” Trump said. “And I got somebody with a warm body, but a big, beautiful brain and a great patriot. He’s unbelievable.”
Ed Gallrein, a Republican congressional candidate for Kentucky, speaks as President Donald Trump looks during an event at Verst Logistics in Hebron, Kentucky, on March 11.
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
For months, Massie ran with an air of confidence that his contrarian brand among friends and neighbors in Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District would carry him to an eighth term. Blue Massie signs dot the landscape across his district along the Ohio River, which stretches from the eastern suburbs of Louisville to the northern Kentucky suburbs of Cincinnati and the outskirts of Appalachia.
But the contest is remarkably close in the final days of the race, GOP strategists and party officials say, with even some longtime allies wondering if the tide has turned.
“The race is 100% Trump vs. Massie,” Shane Noem, chairman of the Kenton County Republican Party, told CNN. “It’s become a pick-a-side moment.”
‘This guy named Thomas Massie’
It’s hard to pinpoint just when exactly the relationship between Trump and Massie first soured. Massie has fought the establishment of both parties since first winning his seat 14 years ago in the tea party era as a fierce deficit hawk.
He has consistently opposed Republican priorities in Congress, including military spending and foreign aid, and defied party leadership on one bill after another. Last year, he was one of two House Republicans to vote against the president’s massive domestic policy and spending cuts package known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
“We’ll get 100% of the vote except for this guy named Thomas Massie,” Trump said at the National Prayer Breakfast earlier this year, going on to call the congressman a “moron.”
“It’s like they just vote no. They love voting no.”
Massie also helped lead the charge to direct the Justice Department to release its investigative files into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The president ultimately signed the Epstein Files Transparency Act after months of calling the issue a “Democratic hoax.”
“There’s three branches of government and we’re supposed to keep each other accountable,” Massie said outside the Capitol, surrounded by Epstein abuse survivors. “That’s what we’re doing here today in the people’s house.”
Rep. Thomas Massie speaks during a news conference alongside victims of Jeffrey Epstein, outside the US Capitol on September 3, 2025.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
He’s also been among the loudest Republican critics of the Iran war, which he said has made him a target for strong supporters of Israel.
Inside the White House, advisers say, there are few political figures of either party – and certainly no Republicans – who irritate Trump more than Massie. The president met with Gallrein in the Oval Office on October 17, urging him to challenge Massie. A week later, he did.
“I’ve dedicated my life to serving my country, and I’m ready to answer the call again,” Gallrein said as he announced his candidacy. “This district is Trump Country. The president doesn’t need obstacles in Congress — he needs backup.”
The president has asked about the race frequently in recent weeks, aides say, expressing his intent to defeat the seven-term congressman to send a message to Republicans that opposing Trump has consequences.
“You are next,” top Trump adviser Chris LaCivita wrote in an X post to Massie last week after Indiana voters sided with Trump-backed candidates who ran against Republicans who stood up to White House demands to draw new congressional maps in December.
‘The elephant in the room’
In one of his closing ads, Massie reminds voters that he has often stood with Trump, eager to press his Republican credentials and blunt any impressions that he reflexively opposes him.
“Let’s just talk about the elephant in the room,” Massie said. “I agree with President Trump a whole lot more than I disagree with him. The list is long: the SAVE America Act to require proof of citizenship to vote, stopping immigrant welfare, fighting the woke agenda, defending the Second Amendment, protecting the life of the unborn, securing the border.”
It’s far from the contrarian brand, with an independent and libertarian streak, that Massie has often touted and many constituents have embraced for years.
In 2024, Trump carried the district with 67% of the vote, while Massie ran unopposed.
“There’s a lot of support for Trump here in the community. There’s a lot of support for Thomas in the community,” said Joe Bentley, a goat farmer and schoolteacher who once served alongside Massie on the Lewis County board. “They’re different characters, but they’re very similar.”
State Rep. Steven Doan, a Republican and longtime friend of Massie who is also on the ballot this year, said he has heard one question above all as he knocks on doors in the district.
State Rep. Steve Doan says voters he talks to like President Donald Trump and they like Rep. Thomas Massie — which poses a conundrum for them because Trump has called Massie “a loser” who is “disloyal to the people of Kentucky.”
CNN
“How do I square this? Trump doesn’t like him, but I like him and I don’t know what to do,” Doan told CNN, recalling his conversations with Republican voters. “I always compare it to mommy and daddy fighting. We love both of those people. We love Trump, we love Thomas.”
Yet some critics are more concerned by Massie’s voting record, particularly on spending measures related to Kentucky, far more than the lingering discord with Trump.
“Thomas Massie has burnt every bridge he could possibly have to be effective,” said Steve Frank, a former Covington city commissioner. “If we have a need for more money for the new bridge that we’re trying to get build or at the airport or if there’s a regulatory issue because trucking is such a big thing around here, he’s not going to get a hearing.”
When the ballots are counted Tuesday night, the outcome may provide a window into whether attack ads and a presidential megaphone can outweigh a lifetime of relationships Massie has built across his corner of Kentucky.
“I’ve known him all my life and I’ll be voting for him because of what kind of person he is,” said Kenny Claxon, a retired cook and restaurant owner, stopping for a moment on his walk around Vanceburg. “He’s the right person for the job. It doesn’t matter what Trump or anybody else says.”
Conversations with more than a dozen people here – nearly all of whom voted for Trump – showed signs of support and worry for Massie. Several residents wondered aloud whether their congressman could withstand the political onslaught against him.
Not Ramona Bivens, who believes the attacks could backfire.
“I’ll vote for Thomas because Trump’s giving him such a hard time,” Bivens said, holding a cigarette as she ate a hot dog at the Garrison Shortstop diner. “I just think it’s silly. It’s politics and they’re running for office. They’re not running against each other.”
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