{"id":20783,"date":"2026-07-29T09:08:41","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T04:08:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=20783"},"modified":"2026-07-29T09:08:41","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T04:08:41","slug":"trump-praises-terrific-rand-paul-despite-iran-criticism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=20783","title":{"rendered":"Trump Praises &#8216;Terrific&#8217; Rand Paul Despite Iran Criticism"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"post-body\">\n<div id=\"attachment_5746340\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5746340\" src=\"https:\/\/am11.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2026\/07\/AP26161564193824.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5746340\" srcset=\"https:\/\/am11.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2026\/07\/AP26161564193824.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/am11.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2026\/07\/AP26161564193824-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/am11.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2026\/07\/AP26161564193824-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/am11.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2026\/07\/AP26161564193824-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-5746340\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rand Paul, R-Ky., left, shakes hands with President Donald Trump as he speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, June 10, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>President <strong>Donald Trump<\/strong> seems to have done a 180 on his one-time foe Sen. <strong>Rand Paul<\/strong> (R-KY) \u2014 despite the senator, just days ago, voicing heavy criticism of the Iran war. <\/p>\n<p>In a <a href=\"https:\/\/truthsocial.com\/@realDonaldTrump\/posts\/117000281218088963\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">surprising Truth Social post<\/a>, the president raved about Paul \u2014 seemingly claiming that the recent primary defeat of his fellow Kentuckian Rep. <strong>Thomas Massie<\/strong> (R-KY) has scared him straight. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cTHE MASSIE MASSACRE in the Great Commonwealth of Kentucky has had a really great impact on Senator Rand Paul who will be running in two years,\u201d Trump wrote. \u201cHe\u2019s been terrific, lately!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Just a year ago, Trump was in the midst of a full-on feud with the Kentucky senator \u2014 who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/news\/rand-paul-trashes-tariffs-as-bad-for-america-i-really-really-strongly-disagree-with-trump\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">attacked the president\u2019s tariffs relentlessly<\/a>, among <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/politics\/rand-paul-eviscerates-trump-admin-lies-on-alex-pretti-shooting-terrible-judgement\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">many criticisms of the president\u2019s actions<\/a>. And Trump made his displeasure with Paul quite clear.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRand votes NO on everything, but never has any practical or constructive ideas,\u201d Trump wrote in a <a href=\"https:\/\/truthsocial.com\/@realDonaldTrump\/posts\/114619648032728687\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">June 2025 Truth post<\/a>. \u201cHis ideas are actually crazy (losers!). The people of Kentucky can\u2019t stand him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Trump also called Paul \u201cdisloyal\u201d and insulted him numerous times in a variety of ways \u2014 including snubbing him on an invite to a White House luncheon at which every other Senate Republican was present.<\/p>\n<p>Semafor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.semafor.com\/article\/06\/15\/2026\/rand-paul-defrosts-his-relationship-with-trump\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">recently reported<\/a> that there\u2019s been a thawing in the relationship between Trump and Paul. The outlet cited Paul\u2019s efforts to get the recent immigration Senate bill passed as a key turning point. <\/p>\n<p>But the two are still not quite in lockstep. Just six days ago, Paul offered up a scathing criticism of the president\u2019s war in Iran. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think the Iran war has not been a success,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/news\/rand-paul-trashes-trumps-war-were-worse-off-than-we-were\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Paul told CNN\u2019s <strong>Manu Raju<\/strong><\/a>. \u201cI\u2019ve been opposed to the Iran war from the beginning. I think, by any objective measure, we\u2019re worse off than we were before the war.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>New: The Mediaite One-Sheet &#8220;Newsletter of Newsletters&#8221;<\/strong><br \/>Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/subscribe\">Subscribe now!<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\nn.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;\nn.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\nt.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,\ndocument,'script','https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rand Paul, R-Ky., left, shakes hands with President Donald Trump as he speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, June 10, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Julia Demaree Nikhinson) President Donald Trump seems to have done a 180 on his one-time foe Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) \u2014 despite&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20784,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/AP26161564193824.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsweek-trending"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}