The human farce, aka President-cum-Dictator Donald J. Trump, offers up the truth so infrequently that anything passing for accuracy from his turgid mouth should lead to the declaration of a national holiday.
Such an event occurred recently with limited fanfare when the walking and talking mistake took to Truth Social, his social media site, to characterize Sen. Rand Paul, R-Bowling Green, as “a nasty liddle’ guy,’’ an indisputable and well-earned description.
But in this instance, one can’t fault Paul if he cites Trump’s words as a badge of honor. Paul is a lone wolf among Republicans in Congress regarding his willingness to challenge Trump on a growing number of issues, ranging from the national debt to tariffs to blasting fishing boats suspected of carrying fentanyl out of Caribbean waters.
While almost every one of the 272 House and Senate Republican members cower and genuflect on bended knee to the false prophet Trump, Paul is showing he’s unafraid to face the Goliath, setting an example for fellow lawmakers, even though he can indeed be “a nasty liddle’ guy.’’ Just ask Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Trump has proven to be preternaturally popular in Kentucky, winning the state by more than 62 percent in each of his three presidential runs. So, it’s both odd and interesting to realize that the three Republican lawmakers who provoke him the most in the Capitol corridors and provide him with the most angina hail from the Commonwealth.
Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Louisville, who served as Senate GOP leader throughout Trump’s first term, extending from 2017 to 2021, found himself constantly at odds with the explosive and infantile Lord of Mar-a-Lago, even though he did more to advance the legendary bully’s agenda than anyone had a right to expect. That relationship shattered when McConnell publicly held Trump responsible for the infamous Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Trump, ever childish at 79, is on record calling Mitch all sorts of names, even though McConnell’s decision to pass on impeachment charges kept him in office and allowed him to run again. Sadly.
Then there’s Rep. Thomas Massie, R-SomewhereorotherLewisCounty, who has drawn Trump’s ire to such a degree that the president has personally intervened in Massie’s 2026 re-election campaign by directing a super pac to purchase air time on Cincinnati television bad-mouthing him and even unearthing and endorsing an opponent in the Republican primary – former Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein of Shelby County.
Massie’s primary sin boils down to his refusal to support administration initiatives that will add to the federal debt, which now stands at $38 trillion. Writing on Truth Social, his social media site, Trump said. “Third Rate Congressman Thomas Massie, a Weak and Pathetic RINO from the Great Commonwealth of Kentucky, a place I love, and won big SIX TIMES, must be thrown out of office, ASAP.”
And now we have Rand Paul, an erstwhile Trump golfing buddy who suddenly finds himself on Trump’s bad side for a number of defilements. Paul was specifically excluded from a presidential meeting with Republican senators at the White House recently for, among other things, opposing a tax cut measure, Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, that added trillions of dollars to the national debt.
“We have everybody but one person here,” Trump said at the gathering. “We’re just missing one person. You’ll never guess who that is. Let me give you — he automatically votes no on everything. He thinks it’s good politics. It’s really not good politics.”
This brouhaha may ultimately prove costly to Paul’s political ambitions. The Warren County ophthalmologist has displayed interest in running a second time for the Republican presidential nomination, the first attempt came in 2016 when he pulled out in face of the Trump juggernaut. He was never expected to receive a Trump endorsement in 2028 but grabbing a tiger by the tail certainly doesn’t guarantee a smooth road to success.
“Whatever happened to ‘Senator’ Rand Paul?’’ Trump asked on Truth Social. “He was never great, but he went really BAD! I got him elected, TWICE (in the Great Commonwealth of Kentucky!), but he just never votes positively for the Republican Party.”
In typical fashion, Trump didn’t pass on an opportunity to lie. Paul was first elected to the Senate in 2010 – long before Trump ruined the nation’s political process – and didn’t need any help in winning re-election in 2016 and 2022.
Regardless, Paul isn’t confronting Trump on nickel-and-dime stuff. In his quest to establish an autocracy, Trump has ignored Congress in the handling of key policy matters as if the lawmakers weren’t even there. Paul, to his credit, is calling him out in no uncertain terms.
Beginning in September, Trump authorized the American military to engage in a series of strikes against boats at sea that he asserts were attempting to smuggle drugs into the United States from Venezuela and elsewhere, primarily fentanyl. An estimated 61 people have been killed as the result. The assaults were done without legislative approval.
Appearing on a television news show hosted by Piers Morgan, Paul protested that “we don’t just summarily execute people,’’ noting that the military is now serving in a role formerly reserved for law enforcement. That should require congressional approval.
“…so far they have alleged that these people are drug dealers,’’ Paul said. “No one said their name, no one said what evidence, no one said whether they’re armed, and we’ve had no evidence presented. So at this point, I would call them extrajudicial killings, and this is akin to what China and Iran does with drug dealers. They summarily execute people without presenting evidence to the public, so it’s wrong.’’
Trump has defended his actions by claiming he has engaged the nation in a war against the international drug cartels and that the unprecedented attack on boats will halt the flow of illicit drugs onto the country’s shores. Each strike, he maintained, will save 25,000 lives, a claim disputed by experts.
The bombings, Paul said on NBC’s Meet the Press, “go against all our tradition.’’
“You have to present evidence,” Paul said. “So all these people have been blown up without us knowing their name, without any evidence of a crime.”
On Thursday, following a limited Pentagon briefing for lawmakers from both parties, Rep. Sarah Jacobs, R-CA, told CNN that the military failed to identify individuals on the alleged drug boats that were destroyed.
The Pentagon briefer told those assembled that the U.S. could not actually hold or try the individuals that survived one of the attacks “because they could not satisfy the evidentiary burden.’’
In other words, the United States of America might just be willy-nilly bombing people with little or no justification.
The briefers offered no legal basis for the attacks.
On a webcast with Glenn Greenwald, Paul added, “For over 20 years, presidents have used the same post-9/11 legal framework to justify wars and drone strikes without congressional approval. It’s time to end this blank check for endless war and restore constitutional limits on the use of force.”
Paul also isn’t enthusiastic about the tariff program Trump has produced that is creating waves in the international economy, assuming a leading role in convincing Congress to overturn them.
“A lot of people in Washington know tariffs are bad policy,’’ Paul said on X. “They grumble behind closed doors but stay silent in public. Meanwhile, the farm economy hangs by a thread and inflation keeps eating away at families’ paychecks. Sooner or later, this ends in economic pain for everyone — not just farmers. Someone has to say it out loud before the dominoes fall.’’
He’s having some success. On Thursday, four Republican members of the Senate, including Paul, voted with Democrats to strike down the Trump imposed 10 percent worldwide tariffs. The upper chamber also voted this week to kill Trump’s 50 percent tariff on most goods coming from Brazil and a similar measure regarding tariffs on Canada.
The effort could end there, though. The Republican-controlled House is unlikely to address the measure and, even if they do, any bill emerging would be vetoed by Trump. Ultimately, the issue will likely be left to the Supreme Court.
Regardless, Paul might be a nasty ‘liddle’ guy, but, at least in this case, he’s Kentucky’s nasty ‘liddle’ guy.