Inside the wild $25 million fight to oust top GOP Trump critic Thomas Massie

The fight between Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and President Trump -backed rival Ed Gallrein is now the most expensive U.S. House primary in history — and it's one of the nastiest, too. Why it matters: The race has turned into an all-out war of inflammatory accusations, savage insults and AI deepfakes. One pro-Gallrein super PAC ad features an AI-generated Massie dining and holding hands with Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), accusing him of being in a "throuple" and "cheating with 'The Squad' on the America First movement." Pro-Massie groups have attempted to brutally undermine Gallrein's MAGA credentials, labeling him "woke Eddie" and depicting the retired Navy SEAL in one AI-generated ad as a soldier abandoning Trump on a battlefield. Both candidates have attacked each other as being insufficiently conservative on a wide range of social issues, including diversity, equity and inclusion, transgender rights, Black Lives Matter, and immigration. By the numbers: All of this is backed up by more than $25.6 million in ad spending, according to AdImpact, which makes the fight between Massie and Gallrein the most expensive U.S. House primary in history. The record was previously broken in the 2024 election cycle when AIPAC spent a whopping $14.5 million to unseat Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), who was one of Congress' most vocal Israel critics, in a race that saw $25.2 million in overall ad spending. The Kentucky 4th district race could end up clearing that figure by a significant margin, with a week still to go until the May 19 primary. State of play: Massie, a doctrinaire isolationist and one of the few Republicans willing to publicly criticize Israel, is facing a similar barrage from pro-Israel groups . The Republican Jewish Coalition has spent $4 million on ads supporting Gallrein, with AIPAC super PAC United Democracy Project spending another $2.6 million, according to AdImpact. Massie's increasingl...

Original source: Axios