President Trump on Thursday said that Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is, in fact, invited to the White House for the Congressional Picnic after the GOP senator and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) both said they were “uninvited” from the event amid their opposition to Trump’s tax cut and spending package.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said late Wednesday he planned to attend the picnic with his wife, son, daughter-in-law and 6-month-old grandson, but he was informed on Wednesday that he was no longer welcome.
But Trump disputed that account, saying “of course” Paul and his “beautiful wife” were invited in part because he is one of the hold outs on voting for Trump’s tax cut and spending package.
“He’s the toughest vote in the history of the U.S. Senate, but why wouldn’t he be? Besides, it gives me more time to get his Vote on the Great, Big, Beautiful Bill, one of the greatest and most important pieces of legislation ever put before our Senators & Congressmen/women,” Trump said in a Truth Social Post.
Meanwhile, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), another critic of the president’s “big, beautiful bill,” said that the White House had also declined to give him tickets to the picnic.
“Incredibly petty & shortsighted of Trump’s staff to exclude Republicans from the annual White House picnic while inviting Pelosi and every Democrat,” Massie said in a post on X early Thursday morning.
Trump did not address Massie’s remarks in his Truth Social post on Thursday. The Hill has reached out to the White House about whether Massie and his family are invited.
The picnic is set to take place on the White House’s south lawn at 7 p.m. on Thursday and is hosted by Trump and first lady Melania Trump. The White House, under both Democratic and Republican presidents, has been hosting picnics for decades and inviting lawmakers from both parties to mingle on the lawn.
Both Massie — one of two Republicans in the House to vote against the bill last month — and Paul have ripped the bill’s deficit impact. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated the proposed tax cuts in the plan would decrease revenues by more than $3.6 trillion over a decade, while measures to cut federal spending — including reforms to Medicaid and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program —would reduce outlays by $1.2 trillion over the same period, resulting in a net deficit increase of $2.4 trillion.
Paul had earlier told reporters that he didn’t know if the revoked invite came from Trump himself or staffers around him, but said he hoped it wasn’t directly from the president.
“I don’t know if this came from the president on down— let’s hope not, but if not it’s coming from his petty staffers who have been running a, sort of a paid influencer campaign against me for two weeks on Twitter,” Paul said. “If you look at my Twitter, it’s just gobs and gobs of these people, we know they’re being paid because the White House, someone has told us the White House called them from the White House and offered them money to attack me online.”
Mychael Schnell contributed to this report.
