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A significant feature of Donald Trump’s two presidencies has been other elected Republicans’ unwillingness to openly defy him. Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky is among the few exceptions.
Massie, a 54-year-old libertarian, has a well-known reputation for bucking his party. His latest effort may be his boldest yet: trying to force a reluctant administration to release documents related to child sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein.
But Massie also has a connection to Massachusetts, one that helped launch his career and could determine whether more about Trump’s Epstein ties comes to light.
Massie grew up in Vanceburg, Ky., and spent his teen years experimenting with robots before enrolling at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to study electrical engineering. In 1993, while working on his undergraduate thesis there, he hit on an idea: the Phantom.
The Globe later described Massie’s invention as “an odd contraption that looks like a pen attached to the arm of a desk lamp.” Hooked up to a computer, Phantom let users manipulate virtual models on the screen. Car engineers could sculpt digital prototypes, researchers could map DNA, and surgeons could simulate operations before performing them.
Phantom showcased Massie’s frugality and defiance, hallmarks of his future congressional career. Massie rebuffed three offers to sell his invention and instead started his own company, SensAble Technologies, out of his dorm room. SensAble attracted $40 million in venture capital and tens of thousands in award money from MIT, which Massie invested into the company. His only suit came from the Salvation Army.
By 1997, SensAble had outgrown Massie’s dorm, moved to an MIT-owned Cambridge office building, and made millions in sales to clients including Disney and Toyota. Four years later, it employed 67 people and had relocated to Woburn.
It didn’t last. SensAble’s profits fell, and in 2003, Massie and his wife moved to Kentucky to live in a farmhouse powered in part by solar panels. He later rode the Tea Party wave into office.
But Massie didn’t leave Massachusetts entirely behind. When he entered Congress in 2012, Massie had an estimated net worth of nearly $3 million, putting him in the top quarter of House members, and was still getting royalty checks from MIT for a patent.
In office, though, Massie’s willingness to buck allies for the sake of principle has extended to his alma mater. Despite having helped build a solar-powered car at MIT, Massie opposes government subsidies for solar power and electric vehicles. He once helped attract federal dollars to the school — “More than once I was called out of class to give a demonstration to a congressional staffer or representatives from other research labs that could have some effect on the funding of MIT,” he told the Globe in 1998 — but hasn’t vocally opposed Trump’s efforts to strip research funding from universities. (Massie’s office didn’t respond to requests for comment.)
Massie’s maverick style has already created headaches for Trump. In 2020, he tried to block a COVID relief bill, prompting Trump to call him a “third-rate grandstander.” This year, Massie opposed Trump’s centerpiece tax legislation because it would increase the national debt and criticized military strikes on Iran as unconstitutional.
But the clash over Epstein is on another level. Massie has teamed up with Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, to try to force a vote to require the Justice Department to release Epstein-related files. Trump calls the case a “Democrat hoax” and the White House has labeled Massie’s effort a “hostile act.” But that hasn’t stopped three other Republicans from signing it. The effort could reach the required 218 signatures next week if, as expected, a Democrat wins a Sept. 23 special election to fill a deep-blue seat in Arizona.
That could trigger the biggest test yet of whether Massie can weather the whirlwind. Trump’s allies are recruiting possible primary challengers and have launched a super PAC to try to oust him.
Yet Massie, who says the administration is “trying to protect people who are rich and powerful and connected,” easily dispatched a primary challenger during his 2020 feud with Trump and has already raised plenty for his re-election next year. As Massie puts it, “He gives oxygen to me when he attacks me.”
🧩 2 Down: Winery process | 🌤️ 74° Fog, then sun
ICE everywhere: A masked federal immigration agent detained a 16-year-old Milford student from Brazil on Friday, but released him hours later. “My heart is torn,” posted Marcelo Gomes da Silva, another Milford student whom ICE held for six days earlier this year.
‘Biotech winter’: Tariffs and changes at the FDA are causing layoffs at Boston pharmaceutical companies, threatening progress against cancer, Alzheimer’s, and more.
For rent: Vacant apartments are popping up in Greater Boston, where housing demand is typically high, a sign that fewer international students and scholars are coming here.
Very generous: An Apple executive is giving UMass Amherst $50 million, the school’s largest-ever gift, to bolster its engineering school. And Colby College will build a new science facility using an anonymous $150 million donation, also its largest ever.
King’s Chapel: The 17th century church, part of the Freedom Trail, unveiled a bronze sculpture of a Black woman that memorializes the enslaved people whose Revolution-era owners made them worship there.
Jeff Rogers: The creative consultant who cofounded Hella Black Trivia, which featured questions about the African Diaspora and quickly expanded across Boston, died at 43.
Bear Brooks murders: Years ago, New Hampshire police told Diane Kloepfer that her absentee father was a suspected serial killer. Last week, she finally learned the identity of his final victim: a half-sister she never got to meet.
Our bad: Trump said he welcomes foreign workers in the US, an apparent effort to ease tensions with South Korea after ICE detained hundreds of South Korean workers at a Hyundai plant in Georgia. (Axios)
Trump vs. the Fed: His effort to fire Lisa Cook from the central bank’s board of governors for allegedly claiming two primary residences on mortgage applications hit a snag: Documents show she called one of the properties a “vacation home.” (Reuters)
Brian Kilmeade: The Fox News host apologized for suggesting on air that mentally ill homeless people should be killed via “involuntary lethal injection.” (AP)
By Teresa Hanafin
🏆 The Emmys: The psychological drama “Adolescence,” the medical series “The Pitt,” and Seth Rogen’s “The Studio” won big. Tramell Tillman of “Severance” became the first Black supporting drama actor winner and Stephen Colbert, whose show CBS canceled this year, got thunderous applause.
🥩 Protein mania: Americans are eating like linebackers: blending, chugging, and chewing their way through protein-enhanced everything. But how much is too much?
🦉 Birdsong: She put down her AirPods (and the podcasts, music, and news) and discovered a cacophony of bird conversations that serenade her on the trails. (WBUR)
🌸 Plant light: Scientists have already made plants that emit a greenish glow. Now a group of Chinese researchers has created what they say are the first multicolored and brightest-ever luminescent succulents. (CNN)
💍 Lost your wedding ring? Or some other valuable, be it at the beach or in your backyard. Call in The Ring Finders, a network of people with metal detectors and a desire to help.
🏢 Hostile to homey: Tired of brutalist architecture that ignores humans’ desire to sit, lie down, or otherwise relax? Now you can buy clothes built to turn that concrete slab into a comfy resting place. (@the_1of1_ on Instagram)
💌 Love Letters: His overseas affair has ended, but he still loves her. Now he has to figure out how to forgive himself and whether he should tell his wife. Good luck with that.
Thanks for reading Starting Point.
This newsletter was edited by Teresa Hanafin.
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