Venezuela criticism

Massie’s Venezuela criticism sets up ‘America First’ test for Trump

Rep. Thomas Massie's harsh words for Trump on Venezuela sets up a test of how wedded MAGA voters are to 'America First' non-interventionism in his primary.

By Lisa Kashinsky

Rep. Thomas Massie’s harsh rebuke of the US operation in Venezuela has opened a new front in his Donald Trump-fueled primary challenge, setting up an early test of just how wedded MAGA voters are to the “America First” doctrine.

In a series of broadsides, the libertarian-leaning Kentucky Republican blasted President Donald Trump for the Saturday raid that captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. He accused Trump of unconstitutionally skirting Congress’ war-powers authority while working with U.S. oil companies ahead of the strike. And he sent a direct message to Trump’s movement about the president’s true intentions in the South American nation.

“Wake up MAGA. VENEZUELA is not about drugs; it’s about OIL and REGIME CHANGE. This is not what we voted for,” Massie wrote Sunday on X.

Trump had long campaigned — and largely governed in his first term — on an “America First” approach to foreign policy. But in his second term he has taken a more interventionist tack, creating some tension with the segment of his base that strongly opposes U.S. military involvement abroad. It remains unclear exactly how involved the U.S. will become in Venezuela — Trump said Saturday the U.S. will temporarily “run the country.”

The Venezuela raid marks the latest in a series of clashes between Massie and Trump over the past year that have infuriated the president and pushed his political operation to field a primary challenger and funnel millions into a super PAC aimed at ousting the seven-term congressman in his May primary.

Massie’s opponent pounced on his criticism.

“Instead of standing with America’s military and the men and women who put their lives on the line to protect this country, Massie chose to side with Democrats and the Squad—criticizing our armed forces while excusing criminals, tolerating the intolerable, and defending the indefensible,” Ed Gallrein posted Sunday on X. “That is not leadership, and it is not what the people of this district expect from a Republican.”

Gallrein’s bio presents a sharp contrast to Massie’s on this specific issue. The former Navy SEAL said he was personally involved in a similar mission to arrest Panama leader Manuel Noriega 36 years to the day before the Maduro raid.

“I was there for Operation Just Cause when we took down Noriega. What we saw this morning was Just Cause 2.0 — a precision mission against an indicted narco-trafficker posing as a head of state. Reagan-style leadership by President Trump,” he posted on X after Saturday’s operation.

Massie’s critiques come as Republicans, including in the MAGA sphere, have been warning Trump to retrain his focus on domestic issues after Democrats swept major off-year elections by tapping into voters’ concerns about the cost of living.

Just one day before the Venezuela raid, Massie criticized Trump’s threat to intervene in Iran as the Middle Eastern government cracks down on anti-government demonstrators — suggesting the president was more motivated by oil and Israel than protecting freedom of speech and warning his foreign focus was misguided.

“We have problems at home and shouldn’t be wasting military resources on international affairs,” Massie posted on X.

“It underscores one of the things people really like about him: He’s never going to be hypocritical,” said Tres Watson, a Kentucky-based Republican strategist who is neutral in Massie’s race. “This is who he is. This is what he believes. And he’s going to say it, whether it harms him politically or not.”

Prominent MAGA influencers who’d previously criticized Trump’s outsized focus on foreign affairs were somewhat muted in their responses: Prominent “America First” preacher Steve Bannon initially praised the strike, though he later questioned whether Trump’s push for regime change would “harken back to our fiasco in Iraq under [President George W.] Bush.”

Massie did not respond to requests for comment.

Tensions with Trump over foreign affairs are longstanding. During Trump’s first term, Massie joined a bipartisan effort to rein in U.S. military aid to Saudi Arabia over its involvement in Yemen’s civil war. Last year, Massie’s opposition to the president’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities and to the GOP’s tax-and-spending policy package infuriated the president and led to Trump endorsing a primary challenger against him in October. Tensions further escalated through the fall as Massie teamed up with Democrats to force the Justice Department to release troves of documents related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

With the Venezuela attack, Massie is “trying to articulate the most ‘pure’ form of the American First ideology, which has played fairly well for him,” said a Kentucky GOP strategist who is neutral in this race and was granted anonymity to speak candidly.

Massie has withstood electoral challenges before and posted his best fundraising quarter of his career last fall amid the onslaught of attacks from Trump. He may now be tapping into growing Republican distaste for Trump’s foreign interventions, as MAGA leaders squabble over whether Trump is betraying the isolationist wing of his movement.

Republican voters had backed the steps the Trump administration took against Venezuela up until this point, including military strikes on boats allegedly carrying drugs and a blockade of sanctioned oil tankers, polls show.

But those same polls predicted Republicans would balk at Trump using military force within the South American country. Just 43 percent of Republican respondents to a late-December Economist/YouGov survey backed a U.S. invasion of Venezuela, while 34 percent of GOP voters opposed it. Forty-four percent of Republicans supported Trump using the military to overthrow Maduro, while 27 percent opposed it. Meanwhile, 58 percent of Republicans said Trump should seek congressional approval to use military force there, which he did not. It remains to be seen how they will react to the raid now that it is a reality — or subsequent developments.

“Trump will likely get a small bump due to the rally around the flag effect,” top MAGA pollster Rich Baris wrote on X Saturday. “[T]hen reality will set back in and voters will be asking themselves who has a plan to make THEIR lives better.”