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WASHINGTON Days before dropping out of the presidential race in 2016, Sen. Rand Paul, who appeared angry and frustrated for much of his White House bid, went on a late-night show and called Donald Trump a delusional narcissist and orange-faced windbag.
These days, Paul is no longer comparing the now-president to Gollum or calling him names. He isnt really bashing him at all. He has, in fact, begun the complicated navigation of trying to sway Trump and Republican policy in the direction he wants it to go even if Paul has far less outward power than he did just two years ago.
Without the burdens of a presidential bid weighing him down, Paul walks around the Senate occasionally sporting his black mock turtleneck with an unmistakable air of freedom and a new sense of determination to mold the GOP-controlled agenda as Trump quickly remakes the political normal. Paul finally feels comfortable, as one former aide put it. At a reception to celebrate the start of his second term in the Senate, Paul allies some of whom had not seen him since the presidential race described an energized senator who now saw real opportunity and power in the Senate under a Republican president.
Now that Republicans hold the White House and a narrow majority in the Senate, Paul believes he actually has the ability to influence policy in his second term instead of just being a libertarian troublemaker, sources close to him say. His GOP colleagues, Paul allies say, now need him more than they did before, and he plans on making the most of that advantage.
The Kentucky Republican is also being strategic in his relationship with Trump, going so far as to defend the new president when his Republican colleagues have been reluctant. When Trump repeated his claim that millions voted illegally in the election, Paul didnt dismiss the lie. He blamed the media for being fixated on the claim. When Trump criticized civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis, Paul said the Georgia Democrat wasnt immune to criticism. When criminal justice reform advocates pushed Paul to vote against Sen. Jeff Sessions, he decided to stand by one of Trumps closest allies.
Even when he has voted against the new presidents priorities, he doesnt criticize the president himself. In just the first few weeks of 115th Congress, Pauls political calculation is evident: He will pick his battles with Trump carefully in exchange for more credibility when he tries to inject his libertarian views in the debate over repealing and replacing Obamacare, foreign policy, and the budget.
I think hes really doing what an outspoken leader in a co-equal branch should be doing, said Jesse Benton, formerly a longtime adviser to both Rand and Ron Paul. Where there is agreement with Trump, he is agreeing and giving praise; where there is disagreement, he is disagreeing in a statesmanlike way.
Paul may no longer be the most interesting man in America, as a 2014 Time magazine cover proclaimed, but from Morning Joe to regular hits on CNN and Fox News, hes making an effort to be seen as the libertarian voice in Congress after a rocky presidential bid where he tried to fit in more with mainstream Republicans. GOP operatives and activists stress there isnt anywhere close to the same level of interest in him they had two years ago, but they are tuning into this new chapter of Pauls career.
I was really quiet in my first term, and now Im going to be less bashful, Paul said facetiously in a quick interview.
(He immediately added, Thats just meant in a humorous way.)
On a more serious note, Paul added: I do want to be involved and try to shape the debate. If you dont speak out, you dont shape the debate.
After dropping out of the presidential race last February, Paul quietly got through the 2016 election, winning another term while staying out of the national spotlight. While his vulnerable GOP colleagues were carefully toeing the line between criticizing then-candidate Trump and not turning off the support of Trump voters, Paul kept his promise to back the GOP nominee and didnt try to distance himself from him, given Trumps popularity in Kentucky.
But his quiet interlude ended almost immediately after he was re-elected to a new term, as President-elect Trump worked on his cabinet picks. The Kentucky Republican repeatedly said in interviews he wouldnt support some of Trumps initial top choices for secretary of state that were being floated. He stressed, however, that he and Trump at least candidate Trump were on the same page. I think an unrepentant advocate of the Iraq War doesnt really fit with Donald Trumps pronouncements throughout the campaign, Paul said at the time.
With Republicans holding only a one-seat advantage on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Paul had some clout, and he used it to push for a noninterventionist nominee who did not support the war in Iraq, as members of the hawkish wing of the party continued to call him an outlier. You can put the Republicans in a very small car who are going to follow Rand Pauls advice when it comes to national security, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said at the time.
In the end, however, Trump nominated ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson, who told Paul during his confirmation hearing he thought the Iraq War was a mistake exactly what Paul wanted to hear from the countrys chief diplomat.
Paul used a similar tactic last week with Elliott Abrams, who worked for former Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush and was believed to be under consideration to serve as Tillersons deputy. Paul opposed Abrams for ideological reasons. But he also announced his opposition to the rumors about Abrams on MSNBCs Morning Joe, a show Trump is known to watch regularly, specifically calling Abrams a NeverTrumper during the segment and stressing that Abrams was the one against Trump. A day later Abrams was reportedly out of the running after Trump learned of Abrams criticism of his candidacy last year.
Although Paul was the only Senate Republican to vote against now-CIA Director Mike Pompeo, because of the former congressmans views on surveillance and torture, he focused his criticism on Pompeo and not on Trump or the administration. In his op-ed explaining the vote, Trump wasnt mentioned even once.
On the issue Paul has been most vocal on these days repealing and replacing Obamacare he is quick to point out that Trump himself called him to discuss his plan. Within the first week of the new Congress, Paul undermined Republican leaders plan to deal with Obamacare with his loud calls to repeal and replace simultaneously. Trump called Paul after watching him talk about the issue on Fox News.
The senator immediately announced that Trump had come out in support of his plan after the call, which convinced some other congressional Republicans that repealing without replacing at the same time wasnt the way to go, making the path forward for Obamacare repeal more unpredictable.
Trump hasnt however backed Pauls specific legislation to tackle the Affordable Care Act.
In the meantime, Pauls involvement in Obamacare and foreign policy issues is bringing libertarians, who werent thrilled with Paul during his presidential bid, back on board. Libertarians are pretty excited about what weve seen, said Jonathan Bydlak, who worked on the 2008 presidential bid of Rand Pauls father, former Rep. Ron Paul. Most of us remember the Bush years where there was a unified government under Republicans, but what we got wasnt conservative policy It was a substantial growth in government. Its a time where its dangerous in a sense.
Rand is his best when libertarians are in these positions, because hes not afraid to buck his party, said Bydlack, founder and president of the Coalition to Reduce Spending, who became a conflicted Paul supporter in the 2016 election cycle.
And its not necessarily a calculated strategy, said former Paul adviser Trygve Olson. Rather, his background as an ophthalmologist with a small practice has positioned him well, given the issue matrix in the new Congress. If Rand Paul were a stock, hed probably be a good stock to buy right now, Olson said.
Hes going to be renegade, said Chris Rufer, a major libertarian donor and California-based tomato magnate.
Among more mainstream Republicans, though, a top GOP operative argues that Pauls moves arent going to garner too much interest in advancing his political career. I havent seen those tactics generate any real buzz, the operative said.
And Paul still faces the same problem hes had since he first got the Senate: Hes still going to be fairly lonely in his battles with top Republicans.
In meetings with a group of influential House conservatives known as the Freedom Caucus, Paul has tried to rally support for his ideas on the other side of Congress. He pushed them against voting for the budgetary vehicle that would set up a repeal vote for Obamacare, warning them that the budget tool being used by Republicans to fast-track the repeal would add nearly $10 trillion to the deficit over the next 10 years.
But a day after Pauls lone no vote on the budget bill that would start the Obamacare repeal process in the Senate, only nine Republicans in the House voted with him. The measure passed overwhelmingly.
Kentucky GOP Rep. Thomas Massie, who was one of the nine in the House last Friday who voted with Paul, said even though they couldnt get enough support, Pauls education is whats important. On this vote here where we just voted to add over $9 trillion to the debt, he was like the icebreaker that went through the frozen water before us, he said.
This was the easiest vote in the world to oppose for me because of the stand he made in the Senate and the education he put out there. So yeah I feel like he is sort of putting up a reinvigorated fight.
Later that week, Paul continued the education by releasing details of his new Obamacare replacement legislation on a Sunday TV show. The bill has yet to find a single co-sponsor.
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How Rand Paul Is Navigating The Trump Presidency - BuzzFeed News