Sen. Paul Slams 'Petty' WH for Disinviting Him From Picnic

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., ripped into the Trump administration on Wednesday after he was unceremoniously disinvited from the White House annual picnic.

"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 has had a lively and fluctuating relationship with Trump in the first months of the president's second term. In late May, Paul offered high praise for Trump's remarks in the Middle East when he declared that the era of America engaged in nation-building is over.

"I thought his remarks, particularly towards neocons and the nation-building stuff, were nothing short of remarkable really. That's the kind of thing that someone like myself has sort of wished for a long time, for someone to say, We're not into nation-building, and we're not going to be getting involved in every war. Frankly, I think he's doing a great job on the foreign policy front, getting them to invest over here, and having good relations is a good idea," Paul said.

Yet Paul's relentless criticism of Trump's "big, beautiful bill" and recent questioning of border security expenditures have earned him no favors, even if he aligns with the president on most foreign policy issues. Paul expressed dismay at his fracturing relationship, calling the move a "level of immaturity ... beyond words."

"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."

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