Michael Barbaro: From the New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is the Daily. In Kentucky on Tuesday, amid his own record low approval ratings, President Trump is asking Republican primary voters to reject a Republican congressman that they've elected seven times before.

Donald Trump: His name is Thomas Massie. Massie is a complete and total disaster as a congressman and frankly as a human being. a fiercely proud conservative who has broken with Trump on just a handful of votes. We got to get rid of this loser. This guy is bad. He's disloyal to the Republican party. He's disloyal to the people of Kentucky and most importantly, he is disloyal to the United States of America and he's got to be voted out of office as soon as possible.

Michael Barbaro: Instead, Trump wants Kentucky Republicans to elect his handpicked challenger, Ed Galron, in what has become the most expensive House primary in American history.

Donald Trump: On the other hand, Ed Galron has my complete and total endorsement. He's a true American hero and he's a great patriot.

Michael Barbaro: Today, Times political correspondent Robert Draper and Daily producer Caitlyn O'Keefe traveled to Kentucky to find out whether a popular congressman can still descent from an increasingly unpopular president. It's Tuesday, May 19th. Robert, welcome back to the Daily.

Robert Draper: Thanks for having me back.

Michael Barbaro: Anytime. We have established quite clearly on the show that President Trump has decided to use these midterm primary elections to try to take out his rivals within the Republican party and impose as much discipline on the party as humanly possible. And so far, he's largely succeeded in that goal. And there's one last revenge race that remains. And in your capacity as a chronicler of the Republican party and the fights within it, you decided that that race was the most important or at least the most interesting, which is why I'm talking to you from the place where that race is about to occur, Kentucky. Why did you decide that that primary was so important?

Robert Draper: largely because Thomas Massie, the seven-term incumbent of Kucky's fourth congressional district, has been more defiant pretty much than all the other Republicans put together. Repeatedly, Massie has defied Trump's wishes and has seemed cheerfully uncaring about what Trump wants him to do.

Michael Barbaro: Right? There's nothing nuance or hedging about his brand of I'm doing my own thing here.

Robert Draper: Not in the least. No. And as a result of this, Trump has endorsed an opponent against him and is encouraging big Republican donors to back that opponent.

Michael Barbaro: And tell us more about that opponent.

Robert Draper: Sure. the man that Trump has handpicked to oppose Thomas Massie is Ed Galrine, a dairy farmer, Navy Seal, and Trump Stalwart who has pledged to stand alongside Trump and help get his agenda passed. This is a familiar landscape for Massie. He's been through this before. In 2018, Trump wanted Massie taken down and it didn't bear any fruit. But this time, things were a great deal closer where Massie has comfortably won his primaries sometimes with 81% of the vote. This time around, the polls suggest that the two candidates are dead even.

Michael Barbaro: Well, Robert, remind us how Representative Massie came to be so defiant when it comes to Trump and why the president finds him to be so intolerable.

Robert Draper: I think that it's in keeping with the brand that Massie has held up from the outset of his political career as this individualist, a confirmed eccentric, a kind of fiscal absolutist, a person who is for individual rights that he would hold the line on things like no foreign aid and that includes no carveout exemption for Israel,

Michael Barbaro: which almost all the rest of Republicans would find a carve out. Yeah, that's exactly right. And so Massie has been viewed really as a sort of darling within certain elements of the Republican party for being a purist.

Robert Draper: He's opposed Trump's intervention in both Venezuela and Iran, saying they betray the idea of America first. And so he's gotten by on that for some time and he doesn't mind being a lone wolf, you know, tends to sit by himself in the house chamber, you know, is sort of this off-the-grid cattle farmer who drinks raw milk and and so there is a kind of Paul Bunan aspect to him, and of all the ways that Massie, the maverick, the raw milk drinker, decided to go against the president, I think it's safe to say that the one he's going to be best known for and the one that is probably the most personally upsetting to President Trump is the way he decided to fight the president on Jeffrey Epstein.

Michael Barbaro: That's right. And Massie took those desires literally and became the champion of releasing the files. and and at a time when Speaker Mike Johnson was being very very differential to Trump. If Trump doesn't want them released, that's fine. We'll recess the Congress rather than allow for a vote on the subject. Massie remained insistent, began to work with a coalition that included the Democrat Roana as well as a handful of other Republicans. Massiey's determination was so great that Trump ultimately had to read the tea leaves and throw his own reluctant support behind the legislation, the Epstein files transparency act. That Trump essentially had to declare defeat was a moment that he clearly did not forget nor forgive Massie for.

Robert Draper: Their party leader has said, "I want you to vote against Massie. I want you to vote for Ed Galrine." And now the question is how important is that dictate from a president they so admire. So about a week before the primary Caitlyn O'Keefe and I went to a Massie event in Boone County. It was an extremely well attended event in the courthouse. Standing room only.

Thomas Massie: If you're covering up for pedophiles, if you are trying to spy on Americans without a warrant, if you are bankrupting this country, then I am not voting for that. And so there are a few times I've had to stand up and that's why I'm in a race here where it's the most expensive race in a Republican primary in the country. It's the most expensive race in history in Kentucky for a congressional race.

Robert Draper: Many of the comments and questions came from people who are really adoring of Massie. But there came a few audience members who were a little more skeptical. One of them was a woman named Elizabeth Smith. She's basically saying, "Help me reconcile a dynamic of me liking you and me liking Trump."

Thomas Massie: Well, I'm first of all, I'm not running against Donald Trump. I truly do have respect for his effort and the job he's trying to do. But if I win this race, I guarantee you he will come right back around.

Robert Draper: But towards the very end of the Q&A session, another gentleman stood up. My name's Mark Graphy. The man's basic point was the president knows more than you do. So why aren't you deferring to this man's obvious superiority in the knowledge and intelligence that he has.

Mark Graphy: But to me, if he knows the big picture, there might be things that you don't understand why he said that that he's not even revealing to us.

Thomas Massie: I don't give anybody but God that kind of trust.

Michael Barbaro: So, Robert, you end up spending time with Massiey's rival in this race at Galin. Tell us about that time.

Robert Draper: And it was kind of an odd event. It wasn't attended by voters, but instead took place in a manufacturing plant. Its stated purpose was to have the US Chamber of Commerce announce its official endorsement of Galin. The first thing that Gowrine did was introduce himself by saying that he's not a politician, that he won a multitude of bronze stars serving his country as a Navy Seal, and then finally, more recently, was pressed into service again by President Trump.

Ed Galvin: Kentucky deserves in America a congressman who will stand with President Trump, the Republican party, and conservatives, not against him.

Robert Draper: I started in our brief phone interview by asking him what House committees you'd like to serve on. And the answer that he gave me was whatever the coach says. Speaker Johnson and President Trump would be the ones to make that decision for him and that he would happily abide by it.

Michael Barbaro: But even if Massie wins, the message to everyone else in the Republican party is, do you really want to go through what I just went through in the name of independence from Trump? And the answer is probably no. So either way, I might argue Trump achieves his goal of imposing a very high degree of ideological conformity. Right.

Robert Draper: Well, if Trump understands nothing else, he understands leverage and he has always shown a willingness to use that leverage and that leverage includes no small element of fear. It does send a formidable message that you don't want to tangle with this guy.

Michael Barbaro: Here's what else you need to know today. On Monday, a jury rejected Elon Musk's lawsuit, claiming that OpenAI, the artificial intelligence company he co-founded, had violated its original mission. Jurors did not rule on the merits of Musk's argument. Instead, they found that Musk brought his lawsuit against OpenAI and its chief executive, Sam Alman, after the statute of limitations had expired.

Michael Barbaro: And the Trump administration has created an unusual $1.8 billion fund overseen by the president's allies to compensate those who claim they were politically targeted by the Justice Department under President Biden. Democratic officials called it a taxpayer financed slush fund that would enrich Trump's supporters.

Michael Barbaro: That's it for the daily. I'm Michael Boro. See you tomorrow.