SCOOP: Trump-backed former Navy SEAL launches GOP primary challenge against Massie

FIRST ON FOX – A previous longtime Navy SEAL and fifth-generation Kentucky farmer who is backed by President Donald Trump on Tuesday stated his candidateship in the state’s fourth Congressional District, as he challenges Republican Rep. Thomas Massie in next year’s GOP primary.

” I have actually committed my life to serving my nation, and I’m all set to respond to the call once again,” Ed Gallrein stated in a declaration shared initially with Fox News Digital.

And indicating Massie, a regular GOP critic of the president throughout his 2nd term in the White Home, Gallrein highlighted, “This district is Trump Nation. The President does not require barriers in Congress– he requires backup. I’ll beat Thomas Massie, stand shoulder to carry with President Trump, and provide the America First results Kentuckians elected.”

The project launch comes 4 days after Trump required to social networks to applaud Gallrein, advise him to run, and blast Massie.

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Trump argued that Massie was a “Third Rate Congressman,” a “Weak and Pitiful RINO,” and a “absolutely inadequate LOSER who has actually failed us so terribly.”

And the president praised Gallrein, calling him a “Brave Fight Veteran” and a “extremely effective Entrepreneur” who, if chosen to Congress, would “battle relentlessly to Keep our now extremely Safe Border, PROTECT, Stop Migrant Criminal Offense, and Safeguard our constantly under siege 2nd Modification.”

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Trump’s social networks post consisted of an image of himself and Gallrein holding red MAGA hats in the Oval Workplace.

Gallrein served 3 years in uniform, increasing to the rank of Captain. According to his project bio, he served numerous times on SEAL Group 6, releasing to Panama, Afghanistan, and Iraq, and made 4 Bronze Stars and 2 Governmental System Citations.

Ed Gallrein, left, seen with President Donald Trump in the Oval Workplace at the White Home, on Tuesday released a congressional quote to main obstacle Republican politician Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Gallrein’s project launch comes 4 days after Trump backed him and prompted him to run. ( Ed Gallrein congressional project)

His project release likewise highlighted that “Gallrein’s roots run deep in Kentucky.” He was born and raised in the state. And his household, which has actually farmed for over a century, constructed Kentucky’s biggest dairy farm and Gallrein Grain Farms, among the state’s biggest grain operations.

Massie took objective at Gallrein following Trump’s social networks recommendation, calling him a “unsuccessful prospect and facility hack,” as he indicated Gallrein’s not successful run in 2015 for the state Senate.

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” After having actually been turned down by every chosen authorities in the fourth District, Trump’s specialists plainly pressed the panic button with their option of unsuccessful prospect and facility hack Ed Gallrein,” Massie stated in a declaration to Politico. “Ed’s been asking them to select him for over 3 months now.”

Trump began targeting Massie for ouster previously this year over the seven-term legislator’s opposition to the “One Huge Lovely Expense,” which passed the GOP-controlled Congress early in the summertime almost completely along celebration lines. The sweeping GOP megalaw is the president’s significant legal accomplishment given that going back to the White Home.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) talks with Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) throughout a press conference with declared victims of disgraced investor and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein outside the U.S. Capitol on September 3, 2025, in Washington, DC. ( Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Massie is likewise leading the push, together with Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California, in requiring a Home flooring vote to advise the release of the Justice Department’s files on the late founded guilty sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, a relocation the White Home and Home GOP leaders have actually intended to counter. Massie is on the edge of reaching the required 218 signatures to require the vote.

2 leading Trump political consultants– 2024 co-campaign supervisor Chris LaCivita and pollster Tony Fabrizio– in June released an extremely PAC that intends to beat Massie. Almost $2 million has actually been invested currently to run television advertisements targeting Massie.

However Massie has actually utilized the attacks from Trump and his allies to enhance fundraising, taking more than $750,000 the previous 3 months, which was the very best fundraising quarter of his congressional profession.

Massie’s district, in the northeastern part of the state, consists of Louisville’s eastern suburban areas and Cincinnati’s Kentucky suburban areas.