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Gerth: It took White House picnic snub for Rand Paul to lose respect for Trump?
Gerth: It took White House picnic snub for Rand Paul to lose respect for Trump? | Opinion Rand Paul put up with Trump being impeached twice and using corporate money to pay off a porn star, but he had to draw the line when he was uninvited to the White House Congressional Picnic.
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Sen. Rand Paul talks tariffs after meeting with GLI
Sen. Rand Paul met with Louisville business leaders to talk about the potential impact of tariffs on the Kentucky economy.
Sen. Rand Paul was reportedly uninvited to the annual White House Congressional picnic, later being re-invited.
Paul stated the reason for the rescinded invitation was likely his opposition to Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill."
Rep. Thomas Massie was also reportedly uninvited to the picnic, then later given tickets.
I swear, I didn't know Sen. Rand Paul was such a cornhole fan.
I mean he put up with Donald Trump being impeached twice, wasn't worried at all about his felony convictions for using corporate money to pay off a porn star to help his presidential campaign, couldn't care less when he drove wedges between us and our closest allies and made goo goo eyes at Vladimir Putin.
But the thing that finally got him to lose respect for Trump is that he thought Donny wasn't going to let him play cornhole at the annual Congressional picnic on the White House lawn.
Paul said on Wednesday that when he went to pick up his tickets to the picnic, he was told that Trump has rescinded his invitation. If Paul wanted barbecue ribs, he'd have to buy himself a smoker.
'I think I'm the first senator in the history of the United States to be uninvited to the White House picnic,' he said during an impromptu interview making its rounds online.
Was Rand Paul uninvited to Congressional picnic?
Trump has since said on Truth Social that Paul would be allowed to attend.
You wonder if it was Trump or someone like deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller who made the decision to uninvite Paul. I assume Paul attended the event Thursday.
Paul said he wasn't told why the White House had put the kibosh on his attending the picnic, but he assumes it's because he opposes Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill,' which would explode the national debt, cut services to the poor and give billionaires a big wet kiss by extending the tax break he gave them in his first term.
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'I just find this incredibly petty,' he said. 'The level of immaturity is beyond words. … It really makes me lose a lot of respect I once had for Donald Trump.'
Surely Thomas Massie and Rand Paul know of Trump's pettiness
U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie said Thursday Trump had disinvited him as well. (Massie later got an invitation and tickets.)
But how in the world could either of them have not seen this sort of pettiness coming from Trump.
Here are just a few of the things he has done:
He calls his political opponents names including 'Fat Alvin' Bragg, the New York District Attorney; 'Little Marco' Rubio, a former foe and now Trump's secretary of state; Elaine 'Coco' Chao, his former Transportation secretary and Mitch McConnell's wife; 'Birdbrain' Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina; and Gavin 'Newscum' Newsome, the governor of California.
He questioned whether the late Sen. John McCain was truly a war hero — he was — and he recently said of former President Joe Biden, following news he has an aggressive form of prostate cancer, 'If you feel sorry for him, don't feel so sorry, because he's vicious.'
Trump held up shipments of arms to Ukraine after officials there refused to make up a lie and say Joe Biden's son, Hunter, was under investigation there — and since he's returned to office has worked to help Russia win the war.
Again, he is willing to see a country lose a war and face untold casualties because the country's president refused to lie about the son of a Trump political opponent.
What caused Rand Paul to lose respect for Trump?
But none of this was enough to make Paul lose respect for Trump.
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His respect for the most unrespectable president ever was fully intact until he faced the prospect of sitting in his apartment watching reruns of Gunsmoke and eating a frozen dinner while everyone else was playing cornhole or badminton or bocci on the White House Lawn — or whatever they do at a White House picnic.
It's good to know where Paul's priorities are, though.
Cornhole. Or whatever it is they do at White House Picnic.
Joseph Gerth can be reached at 502-582-4702 or by email at jgerth@ You can also follow him at @
