President Donald Trump sharply criticized Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky on Friday after the libertarian-leaning Republican blocked a bill designed to prevent members of Congress from collecting pay during the ongoing government shutdown.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump accused Paul of putting his own paycheck ahead of the interests of American taxpayers. “It was so interesting yesterday when our Great Senator from Louisiana, John Kennedy, introduced a Bill in an attempt to withhold Members of Congress from getting paid, and Rand Paul, who never votes for anything, tried to stop it,” Trump wrote. “Because he wanted to be paid! In other words, Rand wanted to pay the people who stopped Government from working! What’s going on with Rand?”
The dispute came after Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana introduced two measures — the No Shutdown Paychecks to Politicians Act and the Withhold Member Pay During Shutdowns Act — both aimed at halting congressional paychecks, including back pay, during any period of federal government closure. Kennedy sought unanimous consent to advance the proposals, but Paul objected, arguing that attention should instead focus on paying federal workers first.
“I don’t think members of Congress should be the only ones singled out for punishment,” Paul said in remarks after his objection, suggesting that the focus should be on ensuring “that people who actually work for the federal government are getting their paychecks.”
Kennedy, who has long criticized Congress for insulating itself from the consequences of shutdowns, countered by attempting to move forward on Senator Ron Johnson’s Shutdown Fairness Act, which would guarantee pay for all active essential federal employees. That effort, however, was blocked by Senator Patty Murray of Washington, the Democratic chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
The exchange highlighted growing Republican frustration over the shutdown, which has strained relationships within the party and placed renewed pressure on Congress to act. For Trump, the moment became an opportunity to draw a sharp contrast between his populist message and what he views as the Washington establishment’s self-interest.
“This isn’t about politics — it’s about fairness,” Kennedy said earlier this week. “Members of Congress shouldn’t get a dime while ordinary federal workers and military families are going without.”
The confrontation between Trump and Paul is the latest in a series of public disputes between the president and the Kentucky senator. In late October, Paul condemned the administration’s airstrikes on suspected drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean and Pacific, calling them “summary execution” and a “recipe for chaos.”
Trump fired back at the time, labeling Paul a “nasty liddle guy” who “went really BAD.” Paul later told interviewer Piers Morgan that he still enjoyed Trump’s company “most of the time,” but stood by his criticism of what he viewed as executive overreach in foreign policy.
Despite their recurring clashes, both men remain influential figures in the Republican Party — Paul as an icon of small-government conservatism, and Trump as the party’s dominant leader heading into 2025. Their feud, however, underscores a broader philosophical rift on the right: between those seeking to restrain government power and those determined to wield it more aggressively in the service of populist goals.
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