Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) had harsh words for the White House on Wednesday after he said he was “uninvited” from its annual picnic, a snub that came amid the Kentucky Republican’s vocal opposition to President Trump’s tax cut and spending package.
On Wednesday, CNN’s Manu Raju caught up with Paul outside the Capitol, where the senator addressed the revoked invitation for seven minutes.
“I think I’m the first senator in the history of the United States to be uninvited to the White House picnic,” he said. “I just find this incredibly petty. I mean — I have been, I think, nothing but polite to the President.”
Paul added, “The level of immaturity is beyond words.”
The senator went so far as to say he has lost respect for the president.
“I’m arguing from a true belief and worry that our country is mired in debt and getting worse,” he said. “And they choose to react by uninviting my grandson to the picnic. I don’t know. I just think it really makes me lose a lot of respect I once had for Donald Trump.”
Paul accused White House aides of “running sort of a paid influencer campaign against me for two weeks on Twitter.” He even said that “someone has told us that the White House called them from the White House, and offered them money to attack me online.”
He added, “So, it’s silly in a way, but it’s also just really sad that this is what it’s come to,” he continued. “But petty vindictiveness like this, I don’t know. It makes you wonder about the quality of people you’re dealing with.”
In a Thursday Truth Social post, Trump claimed that Paul and his family are in fact invited to the White House event.
“Of course Senator Rand Paul and his beautiful wife and family are invited to the BIG White House Party tonight. He’s the toughest vote in the history of the U.S. Senate, but why wouldn’t he be? Besides, it gives me more time to get his Vote on the Great, Big, Beautiful Bill, one of the greatest and most important pieces of legislation ever put before our Senators & Congressmen/women,” the president wrote.
Paul responded to the invitation with two posts, one in which he called the president’s words “promising” and another in which he slapped a Make America Great Again hat on his grandson.
“This is a promising sign of things to come—and if there’s one thing [President Trump] and I agree on, it’s that my wife is beautiful,” the senator wrote on X.
“Turns out my grandson is actually invited to the Congressional Picnic! He is ready!” Paul wrote in another post holding his grandson in a MAGA hat.
Fellow budget hawk Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) also said he was not invited to this year’s White House event.
