Trump’s allies in danger of scraping false hope from Maga victory in Kentucky primary

“Thomas Massie caught in a throuple!” screamed the AI-generated attack ad that showed the Republican congressman supposedly dining with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar then checking into a hotel with the two progressives. “Thomas Massie betrayed President Trump!” it added. Crude but effective, as it turns out. Massie, from northern Kentucky, lost the most expensive House of Representatives primary election in history on Tuesday to Ed Gallrein , a farmer and former US Navy Seal backed by Donald Trump. Massie’s ousting after nearly 14 years was proof that Trump still rules the Republican party like a mob boss who can get a horse’s head placed in any bed. Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, posted on X: “Do not ever doubt President Trump and his political power. Fuck around, find out.” But the president’s allies are in danger of scraping false hope from Kentucky’s fourth congressional district. Trump commands fierce loyalty from a base that is shrinking. He is like a cult leader whose commune keeps getting smaller while the devotion inside grows more intense. For sure, Trump’s political death has been greatly exaggerated. He was written off after the January 6 insurrection, but in the end it was Liz Cheney, his leading Republican critic on that effort to subvert democracy, who paid the price when she lost her House seat in Wyoming in 2022. …