Rand Paul's recent attacks on Donald Trump's mass deportations plans are the latest example of the Kentucky senator speaking out against the president-elect.
Paul told CBS News' Face the Nation on Sunday that, while he is in favor of "going after" immigrants who are murderers and sex crime offenders, sending in the army and other military resources to do so would be "illegal."
Paul, who will lead the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in the next congressional term, also told Newsmax last week it would be a "terrible image" to use the army to round up illegal immigrants across the U.S.
The Kentucky senator ran against Trump in the 2016 GOP presidential primary, but later became an ardent supporter of him. Paul has become more outspoken against Trump in recent months, and never enthusiastically endorsed him in the 2024 campaign. Newsweek has contacted Paul's office and the Trump transition team for comment via email.
Paul is not up for reelection until 2028, meaning that it will be years before the president-elect considers whether to give the Kentucky senator the influential Trump endorsement or not.
Speaking to Face the Nation, Paul said that he backs aspects of Trump's mass deportation plans, but not the suggestion that the military could be used to do so.
"I'm a 100 percent supportive of going after the 15,000 murders, the 13,000 sexual assault perpetrators, rapists—all of these people. Let's send them on their way to prison or back home to another prison," Paul said. "But you don't do it with the army because it's illegal, and we've had a distrust of putting the army into our streets."
Paul appeared to be mixing up figures released by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in September stating that there have been 13,099 immigrants convicted of homicide living in the U.S. and 15,811 convicted of sexual assault over a 40-year period.
While citing the same figures to Newsmax on November 19, Paul said: "I think if we start there, we will be fine. I'm not in favor of sending the army in uniforms into our cities to collect people. I think it's a terrible image."
Paul also spoke against Trump's plans to impose higher international trade tariffs during his appearance on Face the Nation.
"I don't like tariffs, but then again I don't like the president promoting tariffs," Paul said. "I think tariffs are a tax on the consumer."
In September, Paul said why he did not give a full endorsement for Trump in the 2024 election, just that he would prefer he won the election over Kamala Harris.
"As far as my enthusiasm, I'm a deficit hawk," Paul told CNBC News. "The Trump administration added 8 trillion [dollars]. The Biden administration is going to add 8 trillion. This year, we're going to add another 2 trillion.
"As Trump left office, he was advocating for $2,500 [COVID-19 pandemic stimulus] checks again, passed out to everybody. I'm not for that. I was against the lockdowns, and I want to hear stronger language in that sense."
In July, Paul also cited Trump putting the country in lockdown during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and the deficit as a reason why he had not endorsed the Republican presidential candidate this year.
"If he wants to get my vote and my support and wants me to be more active in this, that he's going to have to be more vocal on things like the lockdowns that I opposed, like the civil liberties abuses that I opposed, like the debt, which frankly, has been bad under Republicans and Democrats," Paul told news outlet Spectrum News. "So I'm looking for a little bit more before I make a final decision."
In March, Paul attacked Trump for endorsing former Congressman Mike Rogers for the Michigan Senate seat.
"Donald Trump just endorsed the worst Deep State candidate this cycle," Paul posted on X, formerly Twitter. "Rogers is a never Trumper, and a card-carrying member of the spy state that seeks to destroy Trump. You have to ask yourself who gives Trump this awful advice?"
Rogers went on to lose the Michigan Senate race to Democrat Elissa Slotkin.
Trump's inner circle had previously expressed concerns about Paul becoming more critical of him.
"There's a growing sentiment in Trumpworld that Rand can't be trusted, and it's a great disappointment," Alex Bruesewitz, a Trump ally and political consultant, told Axios in June.
With the GOP controlling the Senate next year with a 53-47 seat majority, any potential dissent from Paul in the upper chamber may not have as much stonewalling effect.
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