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Sen. Rand Paul blasted President Donald Trump and his administration as “incredibly petty” after his family’s invitation to a White House picnic for members of Congress was abruptly rescinded.
“I think I’m the first senator in the history of the United States to be uninvited to the White House picnic,” the Kentucky Republican told reporters on Wednesday. “I just find this incredibly petty. I mean – I have been, I think, nothing but polite to the president.”
Trump himself may not see it that way, however, having been angered by Paul’s recent opposition to his “Big, Beautiful Bill.”
Paul, a fiscal hawk, briefly formed an alliance with Elon Musk earlier this month when he labelled the president’s signature tax and spending legislation “a huge mistake,” joining the tech billionaire in expressing anxiety about the bill adding as much as $5 trillion to the national debt over the next decade.
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That led the president to lash out at the senator in a brace of posts on Truth Social, in the first of which he complained: “Rand Paul has very little understanding of the BBB, especially the tremendous GROWTH that is coming. He loves voting ‘NO’ on everything, he thinks it’s good politics, but it’s not. The BBB is a big WINNER!!!”
In the second, he griped: “Rand votes NO on everything, but never has any practical or constructive ideas. His ideas are actually crazy (losers!). The people of Kentucky can’t stand him. This is a BIG GROWTH BILL!”
Paul also risked Trump’s wrath by criticizing the upcoming military parade in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, marking the president’s 79th birthday and the 250th anniversary of the founding of the U.S. Army.
The senator told reporters he has “never been a big fan of goose-stepping soldiers in big tanks and missiles rolling down the street,” and compared the event to the sort of triumphalist show of might more commonly associated with the Soviet Union and North Korea.
Paul has further provoked the administration by accusing it of “running sort of a paid influencer campaign against me for two weeks on Twitter.”
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“We know they’re being paid because… someone has told us that the White House called them from the White House, and offered them money to attack me online,” he said.
As if that were not enough, Paul has also attacked Trump’s senior adviser Stephen Miller for “basically going around casually talking about getting rid of habeas corpus.”
The picnic blacklisting is nevertheless embarrassing for the senator, who learned of his exclusion when he inquired about picking up his tickets, according to Politico.
Paul said he did not know whether Trump himself or a White House staffer had made the decision to cross him off the guest list, but said the “level of immaturity is beyond words.”
