'Blatantly wrong': Trump sets sights on 2 GOP senators who have openly criticized his bill
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a swearing-in ceremony for the new U.S. ambassador to China, former U.S. Senator David Perdue, at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 7, 2025. REUTERS/Leah Millis/File Photo
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday Republican Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) and Rand Paul (R-K.Y.) are "blatantly wrong" in their criticism of President Donald Trump's "Big, Beautiful Bill."
During the White House press briefing Tuesday afternoon, CNN's Kaitlan Collins asked Leavitt: “On the Big Beautiful Bill, you said recently, it’s blatantly wrong to say that it adds to the deficit… But Republicans like Ron Johnson and Rand Paul disagree. They are saying it will add to the deficit. That is their concern. Is the White House’s position that those two Republican senators are quote ‘blatantly wrong’?”
Leavitt responded: “It is. Those senators, it's not news that they disagree with that this president on policy and the president has vocally called them out for it and for them not having their facts together.”
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She continued: “The Congressional Budget Office has been historically wrong. In fact, they predicted the Trump tax cuts from the President’s first term in 2017… their prediction was wrong by half a trillion dollars.”
Leavitt went on to say that the institution has become "partisan and political.”
Earlier Tuesday, Trump sharply criticized Paul for declining to support a bill central to his domestic agenda. This was part of a growing effort by Trump to pressure fellow Republican senators to swiftly back and pass the legislation.
In two posts on his social platform Truth Social, Trump asserted that Paul lacked a clear grasp of the bill and stated: “His ideas are actually crazy (losers!). The people of Kentucky can’t stand him.”
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Trump also said that Paul habitually votes against legislation, believing it benefits him politically.
Paul had called Trump’s bill the largest increase in America's debt ceiling in history.
"I think it’s a mistake, because once conservative Republicans vote for this.. they will own it. The debt will be owned by the Republicans. There's no more pointing fingers at the Democrats and saying they’re the big spenders," he told Fox News in an interview.
"I'm not going to be one of the Republicans who's going to be responsible for this debt," the Kentucky senator said.
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