WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump said Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul and his family are invited to the White House picnic, a bipartisan event attended by members of Congress, after Paul claimed they were “uninvited.”
Paul, a fiscal hawk conservative, has voiced opposition to Trump’s sweeping tax and domestic policy bill, arguing that it would only add to the budget deficit. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that it would add roughly $2.4 trillion to the deficit over the next decade.
More recently, Paul, the chair of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said he would propose less money for border security in the bill – a key issue that Trump campaigned on in 2024. The tax bill, which passed the House in May, includes more than $140 billion toward Trump’s plan to crack down on illegal immigration.
On June 11, Paul claimed that it was “incredibly petty” for Trump not to invite him to the White House picnic, telling reporters that “the level of immaturity is beyond words.”
“It really makes me lose a lot of respect I once had for Donald Trump,” Paul said. He added that his son, daughter-in-law, and grandson were flying up to Washington, D.C. for the picnic.
But Trump in a June 12 Truth Social post wrote that quite the opposite is at play.
“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?” Trump wrote. “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.”
Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, who voted against the tax bill, claimed in a post on X that his tickets were “withheld.” However Trump has not publicly commented on Massie’s invitation.
The bill is now in the Senate, where lawmakers in the upper chamber are proposing new changes. Senate Majority Leader John Thune only has three Republican “no” votes to spare, assuming that all Democrats are opposed to the bill.
Paul has previously broken from his party. He joined with Democrats in voting against the temporary spending bill in March to avert a government shutdown, arguing that it was going against cuts that billionaire Elon Musk had proposed.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump, Rand Paul go back-and-forth on White House picnic invitation
