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.
Paul — who has criticized the debt limit provision in the “big, beautiful bill,” along with its impact on the deficit — said he had planned to attend the White House picnic on Thursday with his wife, son, daughter-in-law and 6-month-old grandson, but he was informed on Wednesday that he was no longer welcome.
“I’ve just been told that I’ve been uninvited from the picnic; I think I’m the first senator in the history of the United States to be uninvited to the White House picnic,” Paul told reporters. “The White House is owned by the taxpayers, we are all members of it, every Democrat will be invited, every Republican will be invited, but I will be the only one disallowed to come on the grounds of the White House.”
“I just find this incredibly petty,” he added. “I have been, I think nothing but polite to the president. I have been an intellectual opponent, a public policy opponent, and he’s chosen now to uninvite me from the picnic and to say my grandson can’t come to the picnic.”
Paul continued, saying “the level of immaturity is beyond words” before tearing into Trump himself.
“I’m arguing from a true belief and worry that our country is mired in debt and getting worse, and they choose to react by uninviting my grandson to the public,” he said. “It really makes me lose a lot of respect I once had for Donald Trump.”
The senator said he was not offered an explanation for the rescinded invitation, and he noted that he was not sure who at the White House made the decision. The Hill reached out to the White House for comment.
The White House has been hosting picnics for decades — under both Democratic and Republican presidents — inviting lawmakers from both parties to mingle on the lawn.
This year’s confab comes as the administration is trying to muscle its sprawling agenda bill through Congress — specifically the Senate at the moment — but it has been met with some opposition.
Paul, a libertarian-minded Republican, has expressed opposition to the inclusion of a $4 trillion debt limit increase in the bill, voicing concerns about the ballooning deficit. He has said on multiple occasions that he will not support the legislation if the debt limit provision remains.
Treasury Department Secretary Scott Bessent has said Congress must raise the borrowing limit this summer to avoid an economic default. Senate Republicans, meanwhile, can only afford to lose three votes and still squeak the package through the chamber, making Paul’s opposition a point of concern.
On Wednesday, Paul suggested that the White House’s rescinded invitation did not help move him closer to supporting the behemoth bill.
“When they tell you your grandson can’t come to a picnic at the White House that all of Congress is allowed to come to, I don’t know, it just shows such a pettiness,” he said when asked if the snub makes him less likely to back the bill.
“But they have shown over the last week they don’t care about my vote at all … because I’ve told them I can and would vote for the bill if the debt ceiling were taken off of it. So conceivably, there might be some situation in which they needed my vote. Instead they have decided to try to attack my character.”
“They’re afraid of what I’m saying so they think they’re going to punish me; I can’t go to the picnic, as if that’s somehow going to make me more conciliatory,” he added. “So it’s silly in a way, but it’s also just really sad that this is what it’s come to. But petty vindictiveness like this, I don’t know, it makes you wonder about the quality of people you’re dealing with.”
Paul also offered criticism of White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, who earlier this week attacked Paul over his criticism of the bill. Paul speculated the rescinded invitation could have come from a White House staffer, rather than Trump himself.
“It could be from lower-level staff members, but these are people that shouldn’t be working over there. But I mean, you have people that are basically going around casually talking about getting rid of habeas corpus,” he said, presumably referring to Miller’s proposal earlier this year.
“And the same people that are directing this campaign are the same people that casually would throw out parts of the Constitution and suspend habeas corpus. So I think what it tells that they don’t like hearing me say stuff like that, and so they want to quiet me down. And it hasn’t worked, and so they’re going to try to attack me. They’re going to try to destroy me in other ways, and then do petty little things like social occasions or whatever.”
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