Although Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) could always find areas of agreement with President Donald Trump, his libertarian streak apparently left him unable to deliver an official endorsement ahead of Election Day.
Now that Trump has been in office for a month and has a string of early second-term successes behind him, however, Paul is reconsidering his reticence to board the Trump Train earlier.
As Fox News reported:
“A few people may have noticed that I resisted an enthusiastic endorsement of Donald Trump during the election. But now, I’m amazed by the Trump cabinet (many of whom I would have picked). I love his message to the Ukrainian warmongers, and along with his DOGE initiative shows I was wrong to withhold my endorsement,” Paul declared in the tweet.
“So today, admittedly a little tardy, I give Donald Trump my enthusiastic endorsement! (Too little too late some will say, but, you know, it is sincere, there is that.),” he added. “Don’t expect this endorsement to be fawning. I still think tariffs are a terrible idea, but Dios Mio, what courage, what tenacity. Go @realDonaldTrump Go!”
The senator enthusiastically supported Trump’s choice to tap former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence and former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Paul received generally positive responses to his announcement:
Because yours is real. Support won is support unwavering.
— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) February 20, 2025
You are at least 100x better than your colleague Mitch McConnell.
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) February 20, 2025
At least you are man enough to admit you were wrong, and I think your endorsement still matters because you’re highly respected, but I don’t think having reciprocal tariffs is wrong, it’s a matter of fairness and equal trade.
— Jericho (@JerichoXVI) February 20, 2025
Well said. A lot of us had reasonable hesitation and thought we supported, stopped short of endorsing. Now we are GRATEFUL to be enthusiastically championing Trump 2.0!! AND, as you said, it’s not fawning. That’s the balance!
— Jenna Ellis 🐊 (@realJennaEllis) February 20, 2025
Semafor reported on Paul’s not-quite-endorsement of Trump ahead of November’s election:
Sure, Paul said, “there’s no question” that Trump is better than Vice President Kamala Harris and he’s generally supportive – but he still has hesitation about a full endorsement.
“My enthusiasm has flagged a little,” Paul said of Trump. “One, because I think the debt will be about the same under Biden that it was under Trump.”
Paul’s second concern, befitting his record as a frequent critic of American military intervention abroad, was that “if there’s a Trump victory, that there’s not, like, a John Bolton in the administration, who’s for eternal war.”
He added that “I don’t think Trump” shares the foreign policy inclinations of Bolton, a former Trump national security adviser and staunch hawk. “But Bolton was a bad pick.”
It’s worth noting that Paul expressed support for Trump’s first-term accomplishments during his remarks at the Republican National Convention ahead of the 2020 election:
Join the conversation!
Please share your thoughts about this article below. We value your opinions, and would love to see you add to the discussion!