Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) hasn’t made any friends in the White House this year with his strong — and sometimes worrisome — opposition to Operation Epic Fury. Why worrisome? Well, that’s where “follow the money” comes in.
“This isn’t America First,” Massie blasted President Donald Trump on X on Sunday. “The price of gas has gone up $0.47 and the price of diesel has gone up $0.83 in 10 days due to War with Iran. And waging war costs American taxpayers about $1 billion per day, which comes out to $10 per family per day, or $100 since the war began.”
Previously, Massie claimed that “we’re in a war with Iran because Israel forced our hand,” a claim Trump roundly countered by saying he likely forced Israel’s hand. And as my Townhall colleague Dmitri Bolt wrote last week, Massie’s statement echoes “the familiar and pernicious accusation that Israel controls American foreign policy and lending credence to anti-Semitic groups that have, since 2023, advanced that narrative.”
I’d only question the “since 2023” part. The accusation, baseless as it is, goes back at least to the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
Whatever. Iran has been at war with us for 47 years and boasted to White House envoy Steve Witkoff “that they controlled 460 kilograms of 60%, and they’re aware that that could make 11 nuclear bombs, and that was the beginning of their negotiating stance.”
It sounds strange, but 60% enriched is 90% of the way to weapons-grade.
Do you wonder what the price of gas might be if Iran could hold Hormuz hostage with nukes? “Let’s not find out” is a fair summation of Trump’s policy on that question.
To be totally fair, let’s stipulate that Massie’s opposition to Epic Resolve is principled and based on longstanding opposition to presidents waging war without Congressional authorization — you know, like that fascist Thomas Jefferson did against the Barbary Pirates.
Snark aside, that stipulation is impossible to square with Massie’s opposition to Operation Absolute Resolve. Massie said in January — using language much like last weekend’s, “Wake up MAGA. VENEZUELA is not about drugs; it’s about OIL and REGIME CHANGE. This is not what we voted for.”
At minimal cost — and well within broadly recognized presidential prerogatives — Absolute Resolve brought narco-terrorist Nicolás Maduro to face American justice and removed Venezuela from the list of Communist China’s assets in the western hemisphere.
That seems pretty America First to me.
To be fair, there’s still plenty to like about Massie.
“Only 65 of us [congresscritters] voted to release the names of Congressmen who used a taxpayer-funded sexual harassment slush fund to settle claims,” he noted last week. And while that’s the kind of thing that’s never going to go anywhere — for depressingly obvious reasons — it’s always good to get members on the record. Massie is also the primary sponsor of HR 645, the National Constitutional Carry Act. That should have been one of those Day One bills ready for a House vote in January of last year, but House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is, shall we say, sometimes less energetic on these things than I’d prefer.
But on foreign policy… yeesh, he often sounds like a progressive Democrat. At best.
That’s where the money part gets interesting, because the Kentucky Republican gets a lot of it from an unusual source — the Mahrouq family of Texas.
After fleeing Jordan, “Sam Hussein Mahrouq built a large business empire, starting with auto dealerships,” Stock Mom reported on X. “His companies now include MEI Auto Finance, iKON Technologies insurance, and major real estate projects like the Caravan Court Hotel redevelopment. The family has also been active in local philanthropy in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, much of which is pro-Islam leaning.”
Nothing sinister there, I suppose, but Stock Mom also noted — and the public record backs this up — who else the Mahrouqs give to:
For over ten years, the family has maxed out donations to the most anti-Israel progressives in Congress. They have given heavily to Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Cori Bush, Jamaal Bowman, and others. They also donated large sums to American Priorities PAC, where Sam Mahrouq gave 100k and smaller amounts to Citizens Against AIPAC Corruption. American Priorities PAC is a super PAC created specifically to fight AIPAC influence and support candidates who want to restrict aid to Israel. These groups push extreme anti-Israel agendas and team up with far-left organizations such as Justice Democrats.
The timing should also give you pause.
More from Stock Mom: “In August and September 2025, right as Rep Thomas Massie started openly opposing President Trump on major spending bills, appropriations packages, and certain foreign aid votes, several Mahrouq family members, including Sam, Rania, Zaid and Raneem, each donated the maximum of seven thousand dollars to Massie’s campaign.”
Ilhan Omar, Jamaal Bowman, Rashida Tlaib, and… Thomas Massie?
One of these things is not like the others, but when it comes to opposing Trump on foreign policy, they all look exactly the same.
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