Kentucky Senator Rand Paul was the only Senate Republican who refused to sign a fawning letter to President Donald Trump demanding the complete dismantlement of Iran’s nuclear program and disallowing Iran the right to enrich uranium for any purpose. “The Iranian regime should know that the administration has Congressional backing to ensure their ability to enrich uranium is permanently eliminated,” the letter reads.
The U.S. House sent a nearly identical letter to President Trump. The bold language and confident air of Congress is surprising. Despite seventy plus years of nonstop war and a war economy, Congress has not declared war since 1941. The late Marine Major General Smedley Butler believed the people who fought in these wars should decide if they were worthwhile—but the U.S. Congress believes it should be the king; excuse me, the administration.
Senate co-sponsors Jim Risch (R-ID) and Pete Ricketts (R-NE) predictably appealed to Trump’s vanity, and carried water for Israel. The top contributor to Ricketts between 2019-2024 was, unsurprisingly, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Senator Risch appears hopeful that his public role in demanding Iran eliminate its nuclear program will continue to make him the apple of AIPAC’s eye; he is up for re-election in 2026.
Senator Paul has been, and will continue be, a target of the increasingly boring Israel First crowd. The rest of the Senate Republicans have clearly not considered the national ramifications of their attempted diplomatic sabotage beyond their next election, or even next week. When Rand Paul, labeled an Iran dove, ran for the Republican nomination for President in 2016, he lowered his profile on Iran and stated that he opposed the JCPOA because “1) the sanctions relief precedes evidence of compliance, 2) Iran is left with significant nuclear capacity, [and] 3) it lifts the ban on selling advanced weapons to Iran.”
By the end of the summer 2015, Senate Republicans tried and failed three times to garner the sixty votes needed to disapprove the JCPOA. Senator Paul did not participate in vote two or three. Notably, another declared senator in the 2016 primaries, Marco Rubio, joined Paul in declining to vote on the third and final attempt to end JCPOA. Of course, Trump did that for them in 2018.
Senator Paul’s reasons for intellectually opposing the JCPOA in 2015 reflect Washington’s myopia—believing the world deeply fears and is moved by U.S. sanctions, assuming it is America’s business if any country has, or doesn’t have, a nuclear program, and reflecting an interest in selling more arms to more countries, including Iran. The latter point is reflected in the data showing that the United States was by far the biggest arms supplier to Iran between 1950 and 2015, even as we lost that tremendous market after the 1979 hostage crisis—with a small neoconservative bump via the illegal Iran-Contra arms sales between 1984 and 1986. As a senator in the country that exports 43% of the worlds arms, Rand Paul’s JCPOA criticism #3 makes practical, if not moral, sense.
This month’s principled stance by Senator Paul is refreshing. If not bold, it is at least principled. Trump has no patience with “grandstanders,” as he labels representatives who speak the inconvenient truth. Another Kentucky Republican, Thomas Massie, has faced Trump’s wrath repeatedly and cheerfully—and we owe Kentucky voters a beer, and our gratitude. It would be good if Donald Trump would spend a moment learning from honest men and women—perhaps from Kentucky—who do not just flatter him. Pursuing peace and caring for America and Americans first and always is Trump’s only mandate—not war and threats of war.
Senator Paul explained in an interview in 2015, “he favors thinking before acting in the foreign policy arena.” That’s great advice for the Senate, and for the Trump administration.
