President-elect Donald Trump has made it clear that he’s looking for yes-men for his next term in office, but Republican Sen. Rand Paul didn’t seem to get the memo.
The Kentucky lawmaker spoke on CBS' Face the Nation on Sunday, and firmly stated his stance against both tariffs and the potential of the military being involved in mass deportations.
Paul went as far as to call Trump’s proposal to involve the military “illegal” and a “terrible image” while talking to the show’s host, Margaret Brennan.
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“I am 100 percent supportive of going after the 15,000 murders, the 13,000 sexual assault perpetrators, rapists. All these people. Let’s send them on their way to prison or back home to another prison. So I would say, all points bulletin, all in,” Paul said.
However, he quickly clarified that he and Trump disagreed completely on how these plans might be carried out.
“But you don’t do it with the army because it’s illegal. We’ve had a distrust of putting the army into our streets because the police have a difficult job, but the police understand the Fourth Amendment. They have go to judges, they have to get warrants, it has to be specific,” he said.
“So I am for removing these people but I would do it through the normal process of domestic policing.”
Later on in the conversation, Paul again went against the party line.
Paul, an occasional maverick in his party, spoke very passionately about his dislike of tariffs, going directly against Trump’s idea of a more insular economy.
“I don’t like tariffs, but then again I don’t like the president promoting tariffs. I think tariffs are a tax on the consumer,” he said.
He later added: “I will be vocal in saying that I think tariffs are bad and that international trade actually saves every consumer about $7,000 a year. So everybody in our country is $7,000 richer because of international trade.”
In an almost shocking departure from Trump’s messaging surrounding tariffs and international trade, Paul suggested globalism was the way forward.
“It’s part of one of the booms of post-war and post-industrial revolution. This amazing international trade has made us richer and we need to talk about the statistics and facts concerning the benefits of trade,” he concluded.
