Karoline Leavitt's unsettling warning to Republican rebel holding up Trump's 'big beautiful bill'
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt is attacking members of the president's own party for their opposition to his 'big, beautiful bill.'
During a Monday afternoon appearance on Fox News, Leavitt called out Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) who is presently a no vote on the GOP spending package which is soon headed to the Senate after it passed the House before Memorial Day.
'Well, anyone who votes against the one big, beautiful bill including Senator Rand Paul, will be voting for a tax hike of more than $4 trillion on the American people and their voters will know about it,' Leavitt warned.
'That is unacceptable to Republican voters and all voters across the country who elected this president in a Republican majority to get things done on Capitol Hill,' Leavitt continued.
Paul was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2010, long before Trump's foray into politics, and was reelected to a third term in 2022 during Joe Biden 's presidency. Paul is not up for election again until 2028.
Kentucky 's other Senate seat is up as an open seat in the 2026 midterms election.
The commonwealth's senior senator and former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is not running for another term.
Paul has been making his rounds on the Sunday shows in recent weeks, sharing his perspective against the GOP spending package during appearances on Face the Nation on CBS Fox News Sunday and Fox News Sunday.
On Face the Nation, Paul told host Margaret Brennan that the math in the 'big, beautiful bill' 'doesn't really add up.'
'Well, the math doesn't really add up. One of the things this big and beautiful bill is, is it's a vehicle for increasing spending for the military and for the border. It's about $320 billion in new spending,' Paul said.
Senator Paul then put those numbers into perspective, comparing the spending package with the funds anticipated to be saved by spending cuts pushed for by the Depart of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
'That's more than all the DOGE cuts that we found so far. So, the increase in spending put into this bill exceeds the DOGE cuts. When you look just at the border wall, they have $46.5 billion for the border wall.'
He went one: 'Well, the current estimate from the CBP is $6.5 million per mile. So, if you did 1,000 miles, that's $6.5 billion, but they have $46 billion. So they've inflated the cost of the wall eight fold,' Paul continued.
'So, there's a lot of new spending that has to be counteracted. But essentially, this is a bill by the military industrial complex advocates who are padding the military budget. There's going to be a lot of extra money.'
'Look, the President has essentially stopped the border flow without- without new money and without any new legislation. So, I think they're asking for too much money. And in the end, the way you add it up to see if it actually is going to save money or add money, is how much debt are they going to borrow? 5 trillion over two years, an enormous amount' Paul concluded.
A May 20th analysis from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that the federal deficit would increase by $3.8 trillion due to tax changes.
The American people, like the Great People of Kentucky, do not support Biden spending levels and $5T in new debt. Therefore, I will not. It's simple. pic.twitter.com/m9sTuDiGZK
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) June 1, 2025
Speaking with Fox News Sunday host Shannon Bream on May 25th, Paul shared further reservations about the increase to the national debt, while also touting his past support for lowering taxes.
'You know, the bigger a bill, the more it includes, the more difficult it is to get everybody to agree to things. I supported the tax cuts in 2017. I support making them permanent. So, I support that part of the bill,' Paul noted.
WATCH: @RandPaul explains why he's a no on the current House GOP's version of Trump's 'big, beautiful bill'. pic.twitter.com/RRXaiGz1HW
— Fox News Sunday (@FoxNewsSunday) May 25, 2025
'I support spending cuts. I think the cuts currently in the bill are wimpy and anemic, but I still would support the bill even with wimpy and anemic cuts if they weren't going to explode the debt,' Paul argued.
Later in the conversation, Paul also warned that 'the deficit is a threat to our country. I think it's the greatest threat to our national security', adding that the United States brings in 'about $5 trillion in revenue', while spending $7 trillion.
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