Trump's rating sinks but his grip on GOP holds. Why? Ask Tom Massie.

If President Donald Trump's approval rating is sinking into dangerous territory - and it is - how does he manage to keep vanquishing Republican critics and imposing his will on a generally compliant Congress?

Call it the political dichotomy of he 47th president: Millions of the voters who helped elect him in 2024 now disapprove of the job he's doing in office, a warning of weakness. But the guts of his base remain unshaken, the most solid of any president in decades, a source of strength.

Just ask Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie.

The seven-term congressman lost the Republican nomination for an eighth term May 19 in the most expensive House primary in history. After Massie crossed Trump on issues from war to taxes to the Jeffrey Epstein files, the president helped recruit challenger Ed Gallrein. Gallrein won.