Senator Rand Paul is not backing down after President Donald Trump ripped into him for opposing the latest budget deal.
Trump went on the attack Thursday morning, blasting Paul just as the Kentucky senator was on Fox Business criticizing what Trump has been calling his “Big Beautiful Bill.”
“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!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Paul didn’t waste time firing back.
“Kentuckians sent me here to fight reckless debt. I will not support a $5T increase to our deficit,” he posted on X about 30 minutes after Trump’s post.
Paul says he’s doing exactly what he was elected to do: stop Washington from piling on more debt. He told Fox Business host Stuart Varney that the bill’s cuts are weak and the spending is still out of control.
“Republicans, not me, voted to continue the Biden spending levels in March,” Paul said. “So we’re going to go through September of this year and the deficit for this year is going to be over $2 trillion. If you’re borrowing $5 trillion, that makes me think you’re going to add over $2 trillion, maybe $2.8 trillion next year. So it doesn’t show me that you’ve turned around.”
Paul supports extending tax cuts, but says the spending cuts are watered down and too slow. He wants to give Congress three more months to figure out better ways to cut spending.
“I think there are four people who are skittish about the spending levels. Some of them are skittish about $5 trillion,” Paul said. “I think I’m the most vocal on all fronts. But there are more starting to come to this realization.”
Watch the clip below via Fox Business.
Kentuckians sent me here to fight reckless debt. I will not support a $5T increase to our deficit. pic.twitter.com/SzHv1vJyAN
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) June 3, 2025
