Rand Paul Says 20 GOP Senators Are ‘Grumbling’ Over Trump Policy — But ‘Don’t Have the Guts’ to Criticize the President

In an interview released late on Thursday, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) told Politico’s Dasha Burns that 20 GOP senators are “grumbling” over President Donald Trump’s trade war with China, but that they “don’t have the guts” to criticize the president.

“There are probably eight farm states — maybe there are ten farm states. That means 20 senators have always believed in free trade,” Paul said, “and they’re all grumbling, and they’re all like, ‘China’s not buying any of our soybeans this year!'”

Trump’s aggressive tariff strategy has hit U.S. farmers particularly hard, with China essentially cutting off U.S. soybean purchases outright. In September 2025, Beijing imported no U.S. soybeans, marking the first time since 2018 that the figure hit zero.

“The tariff war with China has led to this,” continued Paul on Burns’ The Conversation. “They don’t have the guts, because it’s their president, and frankly, they’re afraid. They’re afraid that he will do to them what he’s trying to do to me. That’s too bad.”

This isn’t the first time that Paul has broken with the president on trade policy; in March, he blasted Trump’s tariffs as “bad for America” and warned that they could lead to a “1930s-style Republican wipeout.” Most recently, he condemned the president’s order to destroy suspected drug-running boats off the coast of Venezuela, calling it “summary execution” and warning that “blowing up foreign ships is a recipe for chaos.”

“Whatever happened to ‘Senator’ Rand Paul? He was never great, but he went really BAD! I got him elected, TWICE (in the Great Commonwealth of Kentucky!), but he just never votes positively for the Republican Party. He’s a nasty liddle’ guy,” Trump wrote on Truth Social last week.

Watch the clip above via Politico on YouTube.