Veteran congressman Ron Paul threw himself into the GOP war when he torched Donald Trump for a Truth Social tirade in which he labeled his son, Sen. Rand Paul, a “nasty liddle guy.”
Trump’s rant boasted that he “got [Rand] elected, TWICE... but he just never votes positively for the Republican Party.” The president also slammed Rand’s fellow Kentucky libertarian Rep. Thomas Massie as a “sick Wacko.”
Paul senior warned MAGA allies in Washington, D.C. that the government should not be run “like criminals in the street.”
Rand had brushed off Trump’s attack—laughing and reaffirming his support for the president. But that didn’t stop Ron, 90, from going public in defense of his son, potentially reigniting a spat Rand appeared keen to defuse.
Ron, who has been out of office for 12 years, fired back on X, describing Trump’s post as “hysterical,” before expanding on his critique in his Liberty Report podcast.
In the episode, Ron’s co-host Daniel McAdams argued Trump’s claim he “got [Rand] elected” was an “absolute bold-faced lie.”
McAdams said of Trump’s “disgusting” Truth Social post, “This is not even a junior high level rant on the part of President Trump, and it’s honestly hard to read this and believe—and I had to double check it—to believe that the person who wrote this is the president of the United States of America.
“Honestly, if I didn’t know [Trump] was a teetotaler, I would wonder if he was up late at night, couple of whiskies, and then lets it all hang out. You know? I mean, it almost looks like that. I don’t know, maybe the hamburgers got to him.”
Ron agreed that “it isn’t very encouraging,” adding there are “a lot of things going on that’s not very healthy for our republic.”
He added, “In this little RINO war, the people making the biggest charges against Rand and Thomas are the ones that are doing it, but that is a big hurdle to go over. You see what Thomas has done over his terms in office, and it hasn’t hurt him, so the big question is, can one person come along and reverse the opinion of all the rest?”
Paul ended the show asking, “Where is MAGA heading? And which direction are we going in? Are we going to more government or less government? More liberty or less?”
“We’re not supposed to run a government like criminals on the street.”
Ron’s comments risk reigniting the tit-for-tat war with Trump, 79. While generally a supporter of the president, Rand, 62, has been a vocal critic of the administration’s bomb attacks on Venezuelan boats that it has claimed without proof are involved in trafficking drugs.
Speaking on NBC’s Meet the Press, Rand suggested his fiscal stances may seem “weird” in Washington but insisted he still backs Trump.
Trump’s broader pressure campaign on Kentucky libertarians has intensified this month, including dangling support for challengers to Massie.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
