Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., speak to each other during a news conference on the Epstein Files Transparency Act, Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025, outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson) In a little noticed item in the New York Times on May 27, it was reported that recently defeated Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and his wife had met up in Costa Rica with former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and her fiancé at her vacation home.
One can imagine a common thread of their discussions was how both had found their way onto President Trump’s enemy list. Given the one-way signs posted on Trump loyalty boulevard, it did not take much.
For Greene, who resigned from the House in January, that meant Trump world wanted her to shut up about the Epstein files. The Trump administration was perfectly capable of bungling the files’ release without her help. For Massie, a true libertarian favoring less spending and less government, who had co-sponsored the Epstein Files Transparency Act, watching Trump’s incessant expansion of executive power was a bridge too far. He has let it be known that he filed paperwork to seek an unspecified federal office in 2028.
Together, Massie and Greene paint a picture of conservative voters disappointed in Trump and not MAGA true believers who take every word Trump utters as gospel. The Massie-Greene conservatives remember what Trump said on Monday. When he contradicts it on Wednesday, they say “What?” By Friday, they have grown tired of waiting for the truth. Thus, they hear a call to action.
Certainly, Massie and Greene do not want to be blamed for tipping one or two battleground states to a leftist Democratic nominee. Who wants to make the presidency of California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) into a reality? Calls to the two to form the Libertarian Party ticket would likely go unanswered.
Massie has a history of voting to reduce government spending and exhibiting no fear of standing alone. More recently, Greene became a modern-day Diogenes looking for transparency in the long delayed and heavily redacted Epstein files.
If Massie and Greene work together, talk together and make demands based on conservative principles they could push any Republican nominee, especially Vice President JD Vance, into a delicate balancing act. Vance would have to try to convince Massie-Greene adherents that he is the true America First guardian while at the same time keeping the support of MAGA true believers who demand total loyalty to Trump. Additionally, at some point Vance would need to deal with true independents who hate the Trump economy and, with reason, Trump’s lack of attention to it.
Can a Massie-Greene alliance force a large number of Republicans into a realization that Trump is for Trump, that government by ego excludes government based upon principles and that true conservatism starts with dedication to constitutional principles? So-called conservatives, who are in reality MAGA voters seeking to replace belief in governing principles with unquestioned loyalty to mercurial pronouncements from one individual, endanger the future of the conservative movement they claim to protect.
A Massie-Greene alliance in 2028 can be useful to the future of American conservatism by heralding to the activist legions that conservatism is based on principle, not personality. But that libertarian-leaning alliance, with its America First roots, must prioritize transparency, respect for and adherence to the Constitution and act in a manner that acknowledges the three branches of the federal government as co-equals. Any Republican nominee, including Vance, should mimic those ideals with pride.
Trumpism will not survive without Trump. Conservatism will not survive if legions of activists continue to confuse it with Trumpism.
Massie and Greene offer a course correction in the anti-left thought process. The antidote to the socialist movement taking hold within the Democratic Party is smaller government, less government reach at the federal, state and local level and greater reliance on community. Big foot interference from Washington must be resisted regardless of its origins, whether from a Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) mentored socialist or under the guise of a Republican administration operating as if it can and should dictate whatever it wants to local communities across America. That is not the freedom America’s founders left future generations.
A true conservative would say if it’s not being done with federal tax dollars, it is not Washington’s business. As Henry David Thoreau wrote in 1849 “That government is best which governs least.”
A political movement, to prosper long term, must be built on principles. Unquestioning personal loyalty to one individual is not a principle. It is an infatuation.
And like all infatuations, it comes to an end.
Kevin Igoe is the former deputy chief of staff of the Republican National Committee and former executive director of the Maryland Republican Party. He served as chief of staff of the Maryland Department of Budget and Management and was a Reagan White House appointee.
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