Politics

The Red State Where Republicans Aren’t Afraid of Trump

Some of the last remaining GOP holdouts hail from the same state.

First published in The Atlantic on June 28, 2025

by Russell Berman, The Atlantic
July 3, 2025 | reading time: 12 Min.

Donald Trump’s least favorite House Republican, Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky, likes to do an exaggerated impression of the president. As he recounted a long-ago phone call from Trump before a crowd of supporters in his district, Massie dropped the register of his voice to an octave resembling Yogi Bear’s. “It started out with: I’m more libertarian than you are,” Massie said. “And it ended with: Well, you’re going to get a primary if you vote for this.”

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