John Cornyn, Thomas Massie, and Bill Cassidy differ politically, yet all had their current congressional stints ended by President Donald Trump. Massie is the only one with a plausible political future, having won over 45% of the vote compared with Cornyn’s 36% and Cassidy’s under 25%. Trump has shown little affinity for GOP establishment figures like Cornyn and Cassidy or strict constitutionalists like Massie, often rejecting their claims that he cannot do certain things. Trump has persuaded the Republican base that these figures represent the same principled “loserdom” the party rejected a decade earlier. He has also tamed the Freedom Caucus and made some establishment figures more accommodating, while questions remain about whether the old guard will accept further concessions, including ending the war in Iran.
"On the surface there are no three politicians more different than John Cornyn, Thomas Massie, and Bill Cassidy, the three Republican lawmakers whose current stints in Congress were recently ended by President Donald Trump. Massie is the only one of this trio who might have a political future. Although he lost by nearly 10 points, he won a shade more than 45 percent of the vote to Cornyn's 36 percent and Cassidy's just under 25 percent."
"But the truth is, Trump has never cared much for either the GOP establishment institutionalists like Cornyn and Cassidy or the strict constitutionalists of Massie's ilk. While they are coming from radically different places both in terms of policy and institutional power (one faction ran the party for decades, the other was a rump within it long before Trump), they both are always telling Trump he can't do stuff."
"The main innovation is that, almost midway through Trump's second term, even as the rest of the electorate turns against him, he has convinced the Republican base that these are equivalent examples of the kind of principled loserdom the party turned to him to reject 10 years ago. During the Tea Party era in the years before Trump, the Massies of the world were increasingly defeating the Cornyns and Cassidys in Republican primaries (and conventions). In 2026, the president doesn't have much use for either of them."
"But will the old guard that made their peace with Trump be willing to make peace, with Trump? Not if that means ending the war in Iran, it seems. When the latest reports came that Trump was once again looking for an exit, Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi wasn't pleased. "The rumored 60-day ceasefire - with the belief that Iran will ev"
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