Republican Senator Says MAGA Will Start Fragmenting Even More If Trump Takes Unpopular Action

A Republican lawmaker believes the president donald trumpThe once firm foundation is about to crumble further.

Sen. rand paul (R-Ky.) said Sunday on News’ “Face the Nation” that if Trump declares war on Venezuela, his “America First” supporters won’t like it.

“Once there is an invasion of Venezuela, or if they decide to increase subsidies and gifts to Ukraine, I think we will see a division and fracturing of the movement that has supported the president,” said Paul, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

He added: “I think a lot of people, including myself, were drawn to the president because of his reluctance to get involved in a foreign war.”

Eric Thayer via Getty Images

And, as Paul pointed out, Trump’s campaign promises about US involvement in foreign wars have not delivered. Trump said in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election that would “fix” Russia’s war against Ukraine “within 24 hours,” but that has not happened.

Meanwhile, on September 2, Trump announced that the United States carried out an attack in the southern Caribbean against a ship that had left Venezuela and was suspected of transporting drugs. More strikes have followed in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean that have delicate at least 83 people.

Although the Trump administration has claimed that the attacks targeted people bringing drugs into the United States, it has not provided any evidence.

On Monday, the The United States designated the Venezuelan Cartel of the Suns as a foreign terrorist organizationwhich the Trump administration says is linked to Venezuela’s autocratic ruler, Nicolás Maduro.

JUAN BARRETO via Getty Images

Paul told “Face the Nation” that he doesn’t believe the Trump administration’s claims and feels they are “pretending we’re at war.”

“They are pretending that they have received some approval to do what they want,” he said. “When there is war, the rules of engagement are reduced.”

Paul also criticized the administration for failing to provide Congress with even basic details about the attacks, including himself, despite his role in Homeland Security.

“They haven’t given me any information, not a single one, because I’m skeptical about what they’re doing,” Paul said. who has clashed with the president over this issue before. “They don’t brief me or the Senate at all. Some hand-picked people may have been briefed, but I haven’t been invited to any briefings on Venezuela.”

Paul also highlighted why he finds the administration’s claims about Venezuela so dubious.

“They want to have it both ways,” Paul said. “They want to say, ‘Oh, we can just say these people are terrorists, they’re narco-terrorists, so we can blow them up.'”

“But it is extraordinary that when some of them survive, they are pulled out of the water and not prosecuted for drugs,” he continued. “They don’t collect drugs. They don’t tell us if they were armed or not. They just send them back to their country.”

“I’m afraid this will contribute nothing to the drug trade,” Paul later said. “But it really goes against the rule of law in the way we interact with people on the high seas, and it’s unprecedented.”

See the senator’s comments below.

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