The most expensive primary in US history happened by money flooding into Kentucky from pro-Israel political interest groups designed to remove Thomas Massie from his Kentucky congressional seat. From INSIDE Kentucky, about 10 times more donations by donor count went to Massie as Gallrein [5]. From OUTSIDE Kentucky, $9 million [1] of about $19 million [2] spent against Thomas Massie was reported to the FEC as being from pro-Israel interest groups. AIPAC reported them self for Israel as lead by donors including Paul Singer (hedge fund billionaire) and Miriam Adelson (casino owner). [3]
Thomas Masssie is a USA Kentucky Republican congressman. His primary issues are protection of basic human rights and liberties with reduction in government corruption such as reforming the federal reserve banking system. He also strongly advocates for reducing government spending and a reduced debt load such as by avoidance of the Iran war and other wars considered more offensive than defensive as a strong peace advocate. Massie is famous for his exceptional loyalty to Republican conservatives [17] and Republican libertarians, but disloyalty to moderates who break GOP platform issues for higher spending and extra wars.
An ex-military sniper named Gallrein defeated Massie with about 58,000 votes to 48,000 for Massie [4] after the pro-Israel donations. Massie has been highly vocal against the Iran war and all foreign aid, including to Israel. AIPAC, the largest anti-Massie donor, declared Massie to be "anti-Israel", with Israel being the largest benefactor of foreign aid from the USA. Massie is also against sacrificing USA troops for Israel's military efforts. $9 million might seem like a lot, but Israel gets over $10 billion in foreign aid, so the return on investment there is implied to be more than 300%, so the spending did make sense financially even without a guarantee of that outcome.
Massie was strongly against the USD $2.2 Trillion Covid USA spending bill which was record high deficit and debt spending for the USA. At that time, Trump sharply turned against Massie saying “throw Massie out of the Republican Party” [6]. Despite his vote against the $2.2 Trillion bill causing Trump to reject him as a candidate, he still very strongly won the re-election that year with 75% of the vote in 2024 [7].
But, things from that point actually got worse after a focus on Israeli-linked government corruption by Massie. Trump's opened up a public position against investigation of big-name political corruption on July 12, 2025 saying “Let's... not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about.” [8][9]. Epstein is largely considered a centerpoint for many aspects of government corruption. This dispute caused Trump and Massie to become definite opponents because Massie was at the forefront of Epstein related investigations. [10] In a February 10, 2026 hearing, Massie confronted USA attorney general Pam Bondi saying the USA Department of Justice had “continued noncompliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act,” calling the department “either incompetent or ... trying to withhold” documents. Jeffrey Epstein had heavy ties to Israel exemplified by his $25,000 donation to an Israel military organization in 2005. [12] Leaked emails between former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Jeffrey Esptein show he brokered a security cooperation agreement between the governments of Israel and Mongolia. [13]
But only in the last few months did it get particularly bad for Massie. On February 27, 2026, Thomas Massie came out strongly against war with Iran. On February 28, 2026 Israel and the USA jointly attacked Iran [15]. That seemed to be the last staw on the camels back for the record setting flood of money against Thomas Massie leading to his defeat.
Israel had damaged its reputation beyond repair with many Republicans and Christians in the USA in July 2025 when it bombed a Christian church in Gaza while officially claiming to be sorry [16], but avoiding any compensation, restitution, or rebuild any of the damaged structure, or provide any health care for the victims after the seemingly intentional attack.
[1]
https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2026/05/aipac-pro-israel-groups-celebrate-massies-defeat-kentucky-after-spending-9m[2]
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/19/us/politics/trump-massie-kentucky-primary-spending.html[3]
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/5/18/massie-race-breaks-spending-record-as-pro-israel-groups-target-trump-critic[4]
https://vrsws.sos.ky.gov/liveresults?id=2&autorefresh=true[5]
https://dailycaller.com/2026/05/20/thomas-massie-ed-gallrein-donations-kentucky/[6]
https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/03/27/822528695/trump-blasts-gop-congressman-who-may-delay-coronavirus-vote[7]
https://ballotpedia.org/Kentucky%27s_4th_Congressional_District_election,_2024[8]
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/trump-posts-support-embattled-attorney-general-pam-bondi-rcna218481[9]
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114842356238631061[10]
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/trump-foe-thomas-massie-wins-maga-allies-push-epstein-files-rcna220586[11]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rI8gLzBhMo[12]
https://en.royanews.tv/news/70326/Day-93-%7C-US-military-ready-to-resume-combat-in-Persian-Gulf-if-needed%2C-US-defense-secretary-warns[13]
https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/jeffrey-epstein-ehud-barak-leaked-emails-mongolia-security-deal[14]
https://x.com/RepThomasMassie/status/2027739993033134279[15]
https://www.britannica.com/event/2026-Iran-war[16]
https://www.timesofisrael.com/under-pressure-from-trump-netanyahu-says-he-regrets-mistaken-shelling-of-gaza-church/
