President Trump’s Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday broke Pentagon decorum — and raised Hatch Act scrutiny — when he campaigned for Ed Gallrein, the Trump-endorsed GOP candidate who defeated incumbent U.S. Representative Thomas Massie (R-KY) in Tuesday’s Republican primary.
As seen below at a Gallrein event, Hegseth attacked Rep. Massie and said: “President Trump does not need more people in Washington who are trying to make a point, especially from his own party. He needs people willing to help him win, to vote with him when it matters the most. And too often, Thomas Massie has acted like his job is to stand apart from the movement President Trump needs instead of strengthening it.”
[NOTE: Massie voted with Trump more than 80 percent of the time, though he incurred Trump’s retribution for voting against the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) and for his efforts to release the Epstein files.]
You know what’s so disturbing about this?
It’s not about serving Trump. It’s about defending and protecting the constitution and the American people.
MAGA has become a cult where Fox News hosts demand absurd loyalty to the very neocon establishment policies that Americans voted… https://t.co/xEmYvFvXv2
— Marjorie Taylor Greene
(@mtgreenee) May 18, 2026
Former MAGA Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who campaigned for Massie, responded to Hegseth’s comments.
“You know what’s so disturbing about this?” Greene wrote. “It’s not about serving Trump. It’s about defending and protecting the constitution and the American people. MAGA has become a cult where Fox News hosts demand absurd loyalty to the very neocon establishment policies that Americans voted to end.”
[NOTE: Hegseth is a former Fox News host, co-hosting Fox & Friends Weekend from 2017 until he resigned to become Secretary of Defense.]
In a speech to his supporters after his loss, Massie also implicated Fox News, saying he had been effectively banned from appearing on the network for more than a year as he fought to retain his seat. He described his treatment by Fox as a “blackout.”
Massie: By the way, after 18 months of a blackout of not letting me on Fox, they finally let me on four hours into the election. [Booing] Hey, their slop is a selling, so they will keep selling it. pic.twitter.com/IkQ8vFY5Oq
— Acyn (@Acyn) May 20, 2026