In a video interview with The New American, Representative Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) delivered a forceful constitutional critique of unconstitutional federal spending, unauthorized foreign intervention, and America’s expanding foreign entanglements, warning that the United States is drifting further from the rule of law, the Constitution, and a true America First agenda.
Speaking remotely from his congressional office in Washington, D.C., Massie addressed President Donald Trump’s recent remarks to House Republicans, noting growing concerns about internal divisions within the Republican coalition and the president’s concerns about Republicans potentially losing the House majority. While Massie shares the president’s desire for the GOP to maintain control of the House, he cautioned that attacks on fellow Republicans, coupled with a failure to keep campaign promises related to foreign policy and the Epstein files, risk fracturing the America First base ahead of the midterm elections, increasing the chances of Republicans losing their majority:
I think if [President Trump] would spend less time attacking Republicans like Marjorie Taylor Greene or Rand Paul or even myself, and less money from … the consulting class that surrounds him and the donor class that surrounds him, they could use that momentum, that energy, and that money to retain the majority in the midterms…. But the president seemed concerned that he would get impeached if we fall into the minority. And that’s almost a certainty, unfortunately. So, I hope we keep the majority. He and I just have different ideas of how to go about that.
Regarding what Republicans should do to retain their majority in House, Massie said:
I think we should keep our promises. I’m worried that our base is starting to fracture now. There are those who, among MAGA and America First, who feel as I do…. We want to prioritize our own country and solve our own problems before we go overseas looking for other problems.
Massive Somali Fraud Scandals
Among domestic problems discussed was the massive fraudulent childcare scandal in Minnesota that was recently widely publicized by YouTuber Nick Shirley. Massie was the only House Republican to vote against the budget resolution last February that appropriated $8 billion in funding to the nationwide childcare assistance program that has since been linked to the massive fraud in Minnesota.
According to Shirley’s 43-minute-long investigative video report, between $800 million and $1 billion in state and federal taxpayer funds were allegedly funneled through fraudulent Somali-run childcare, non-emergency medical transportation, and personal home-care assistance businesses. Some of those funds might have reached the al-Shabaab radical Islamic terrorist organization. Massie stressed that even those who believe such federal childcare programs are constitutional should still be alarmed by the lack of oversight. He explained that states such as Minnesota are financially incentivized to allow fraud because federal dollars, whether they are disbursed legitimately or not, stimulate local economies and generate tax revenue for the state.
“The state, the governors and the state legislatures, are actually motivated not to have efficient programs, but to have the maximum money that they can get coming to their state,” Massie said. “So any time they start cracking down on eligibility, they start restricting the funds, and they think that’s a bad thing.” Massie rejects the underlying premise that federal childcare programs are constitutional. He pointed out that such programs did not exist until the 1990s and have no basis in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution. He also criticized the incentives that such programs create, including discouraging marriage, favoring dual-income households for tax purposes, and excluding parents and grandparents who provide care outside the formal workforce. “Everybody is concerned about the fraud in the program,” Massie remarked, “without considering that maybe the whole program is fraudulent in itself.”
Venezuelan Intervention
The Kentucky congressman was equally blunt in his assessment of the recent U.S. military intervention in Venezuela to arrest the country’s sitting president, albeit socialist dictator, Nicolás Maduro. Massie characterized the action as an “act of war” rather than an arrest, warning that it sets a dangerous precedent. “We went and snatched the president of another country so that we can take over their resources. And those resources ostensibly, right now, just include the oil,” he said.
According to Massie, abandoning legal and constitutional restraints invites global instability. If the United States claims the right to remove foreign leaders based on its own laws, other nations could adopt the same rationale. He criticized those quick to cheer on the Trump administration’s military actions, warning that such intervention could embolden Russia, China, or other powers to justify aggression against their neighbors, including Taiwan:
We’ve got social-media influencers — and even people in the administration — that are skipping all of the legal arguments and just saying that “might makes right,” that if you can get away with it, then you should be able to do it. And if that’s going to be the rationalization going forward, then of course Russia could do this to its lesser neighbors, and China could do this to its lesser neighbors.
“[Maduro’s] crime is noncompliance with whatever the United States wants,” Massie said. “And that would be part of the indictment if the indictment were really written out. Instead, they’ve indicted him for possessing machine guns in contravention of the 1934 National Firearms Act of the United States.”
According to Massie, the real reasons for going after Maduro and Venezuela include Venezuela competing with the U.S. oil industry, producing gold, and using currencies other than the dollar for oil transactions.
Neocon Influence
Massie warned of what he described as “neocon principles … ascendant in the White House and in the Cabinet.” He elaborated, “You’ve got Cabinet members that used to be Never Trumpers because Trump pursued and campaigned on the principle of America First. But now they’re in the Cabinet and they’ve swayed his way of thinking.” He also expressed concern about the president being emboldened to conduct further foreign military interventions. “There were injuries; there were maybe 40 or 80 deaths in Venezuela, but not of our service members,” he said, “so they’ll use this to ratchet it up next time and put our soldiers at risk again, which I think is wrong.”
Get US Out of NATO
Also discussed during the interview was Massie’s bill H.R. 6508, the Not A Trusted Organization (NATO) Act, to withdraw the United States from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in favor of constitutional, bilateral defense agreements to protect the American homeland. “We should not be subsidizing the socialist levels of government spending that they have in Europe by providing for their defense,” he said. “And to the extent that people want to interpret Article Five [of the North Atlantic Treaty] wrongly as a suicide pact with Europe against the Soviet Union or China, it would get us out of that suicide pact that’s outside of our Constitution. So let’s get out of it.”
“NATO is a Cold War relic,” he added. “When the Soviet Union went away, so should our involvement within NATO have gone away.”
The full interview may be viewed here.
