House Democrats came within one vote on April 16 of stripping President Donald Trump of his office’s war powers, as Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) was the sole Republican to vote with the Democrats. Should we nominate him for membership in “The Squad” now?
The final vote in the House was 213 to 214, with Massie voting with the Democrats. On the other side, one Democrat, Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine), voted with the Republicans to preserve Trump’s war powers. Spineless Republican Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) voted present.
House Democrats, led by Ilhan Omar, came within ONE vote of stripping President Trump of his war powers. 212 Democrats + 1 Republican (Thomas Massie) voted YES.
— Florida Mike (@TheFloridaMike) April 17, 2026
Who wants to see KY-4 vote for Trump-endorsed @EdGallrein to FIRE Massie? pic.twitter.com/FMa4JqRZGT
The cover story for the measure was that it was intended to end the Iran war by removing war powers from a sitting Commander in Chief. More obviously, it was just another attempt for the Democrats and Massie (but I repeat myself) to undermine Trump.
That said, even if the resolution passed, the Senate would have had to adopt it, and it is broadly understood that it won’t. On April 15, the Senate took a vote on a similar measure, and it went down in defeat easily. That vote was 47 to 52, along party lines for the most part.
Back in March, Massie was a co-sponsor of the same sort of resolution. His partner in political crime was Ro Khanna (D-Calif.). That attempt to remove Trump’s war powers went down in defeat, 212 to 219. In addition to Massie’s Republican vote for the measure, Davidson also voted for it. He must have gotten some blowback after that, since this time he decided to vote "present."
Ever since Trump worked with Israel to initiate the attacks on Iran with a focus on its nuclear ambitions, he has made it clear that under his watch, Iran’s murderous regime would not get nuclear weapons. This not only includes a bomb, but also the missile delivery systems, to become a global threat. Massie seems just fine with Iran achieving its objectives.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) voted with Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) to strip President Trump of his war powers today.
— Paul A. Szypula 🇺🇸 (@Bubblebathgirl) April 17, 2026
The resolution was narrowly rejected by the House, 214-213.
Massie was confronted about being a traitor and essentially said he’s fine with Iran having nukes because he… pic.twitter.com/esdrIu77Ht
This latest resolution was brought by Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), who is the senior Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The resolution's stated purpose was to assert Congress’s authority to “declare war,” which Meeks maintains is detailed in Article I of the U.S. Constitution.
The decline of Massie as a conservative has been a sad thing to watch. At first it was fair to give him the benefit of the doubt when he took a stand on things like the budget when he got himself elected as a fiscal conservative and somewhat of a libertarian. Not that I ever agreed with his dissent from the Republicans in any instance, but had he voted strictly on principle, at least I could understand that.
But at the first whiff of blowback from Trump, Massie’s ego took over, and he started to work against Trump, presumably, just because it was Trump. Now, Massie is so consistently anti-Trump that he is more and more anti-American. He doesn’t even create the appearance of caring as much about the country as feeding his grudge against Trump.
That’s the nice way of putting it. There is also the very real possibility that he was faking it all along. Being a conservative, or a libertarian, worked to get him where he is, but now the true Thomas Massie emerges, and he’s the one who has run open arms into a club dominated by the likes of the anti-American Ilhan Omar and "The Squad."
For the good of the country, Kentucky needs to do better.
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