Anti-LGBTQ+ Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) wrote via social media on Thursday, “Leaders of my own party protect sex traffickers.” His remark came in response to Vice President J.D. Vance’s recent explanation of why President Donald Trump endorsed Massie’s primary challenger.

Vance made his comment during a Turning Point USA tour at the University of Mississippi on Wednesday. A student asked how he would address Republican fears that the GOP discourages “principled disagreement or independent thinking” within its ranks by framing it as “a betrayal, instead of as internal accountability or an opportunity for debate and negotiation,” The Hill reported.

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“The president of the United States has trained his ire on Thomas Massie,” Vance told thousands of students at the event, “because we can never count on him for some of the most difficult votes…. Politics is politics, and when you always vote against the party, you can’t expect the party to actually back you. That’s the reality.”

In response, Massie wrote via X, “When leaders of my own party protect sex traffickers, spend our grandkids into oblivion, fund endless wars, lockdown our citizens, bailout corporations, bow to other countries, and hurt small farmers … it’s true that I won’t be their yes man.”

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When leaders of my own party protect sex traffickers, spend our grandkids into oblivion, fund endless wars, lockdown our citizens, bailout corporations, bow to other countries, and hurt small farmers…

…it’s true that I won’t be their yes man.

— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) October 30, 2025

Massie has publicly criticized congressional Republican attempts to hide investigative government files on convicted child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and his high-profile accomplices. He has also criticized the Republicans’ continuing resolution to keep the government funded, Trump’s unauthorized military actions abroad, and the president’s so-called “big beautiful bill,” which provides tax benefits to wealthy Americans.

Massie has voted against the Equality Act, a bill to expand federal LGBTQ+ equality protections, and supported the so-called Protect Children’s Innocence Act, which would ban gender-affirming care for transgender minors.

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