Rand Paul Trashes Trump’s War: ‘We’re Worse Off Than We Were’

Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) trashed President Donald Trump’s ongoing war in Iran on Wednesday, telling CNN, “We’re worse off than we were before.”

The hallway interview with CNN’s Manu Raju aired on Wednesday’s edition of CNN NewsNight. While the two countries reached a tentative ceasefire in June, the agreement has since been broken, with Trump accusing Iran of firing on commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. Multiple military exchanges followed, with four U.S. service members killed this past weekend by Iranian attacks.

“I think the Iran war has not been a success,” Paul told Raju. “I’ve been opposed to the Iran war from the beginning. I think, by any objective measure, we’re worse off than we were before the war.”

“How do you think voters would react if the GOP Congress approved $70 billion or so for Iran before the midterms?” Raju asked. This comes as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth requested around the same amount for the “operational costs” of the war last month.

“I think people are mostly upset about how much things cost, you know, so when they go to see gas prices,” explained the senator. “But it’s also really just all across the board.” According to a CNBC analysis, “the national average price at the pump was $4.06 a gallon on Wednesday, up 4.4% from $3.89 a week ago.”

“Will there be backlash in November?” asked Raju of the upcoming midterm elections.

“Probably,” responded Paul.

In March, he questioned the initial reasoning behind the war in the first place, telling Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo, “As far as the reasons for the war, there have been many different reasons floated, but none of them, I think, have been very convincing.”

Yet in June, Paul backed away from an effort to curb Trump’s war powers, voting present and ultimately allowing the resolution to be rejected.

Watch the clip above via CNN.

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