Republican Senator Rand Paul on Sunday criticized President Donald Trump’s military mission off the coast of Venezuela, calling the seizures of multiple oil tankers in the Caribbean Sea “a provocation and a prelude to war.”
“I’m not in favor of confiscating these ocean liners. I’m not in favor of blowing up these ships of unarmed people who are suspected of being drug traffickers. I’m not in favor of any of this.” Paul told ABC News’ “This Week” co-host Jonathan Karl.
Paul also described the administration’s policy in handling suspected drug traffickers as “bizarre and contradictory.”
“And then Why the former president? [Juan Orlando] Hernandez from Honduras, who was in prison for 45 years, why are they releasing him?” Paul asked. “So some narcoterrorists are really fine and other narcoterrorists we are going to blow up. And then some of them, if they are not designated as terrorists, we could arrest them.”
Senator Rand Paul walks through the Senate subway on Capitol Hill, December 11, 2025, in Washington, DC.
Heather Diehl/Getty Images
Here are more highlights from Paul’s interview:
On Erika Kirk and Marco Rubio’s endorsement of Vance 2028
Carl: Is JD Vance the heir apparent here?
Pablo: Believe There need to be representatives in the Republican Party who still believe that international trade is good, who still believe in free market capitalism, who still believe in low taxes. You see, it used to separate conservatives and liberals because conservatives thought it was a spending problem. We didn’t want more income. We wanted to spend less. But now all these pro-terrorist protectionists love taxes, and so they tax, tax, tax, and then brag about all the income that comes in. That has never been a conservative position. So I’m going to keep trying to lead a free-market conservative wing of the party and we’ll see where things lead over time.
Carl: And that’s not JD Vance.
Pablo: No.
On retaliation attacks in Syria
Pablo: You know, it’s hard not to want to hit back when some of our own are killed. But I would really like to go back to the first Trump administration when he said he didn’t want troops there. There are like 900 soldiers, maybe a thousand, maybe 1,500. They are not enough to wage a war. They are not enough to be an effective strategic force. What they are is a target and a tripwire.
So we have carried out this retaliatory attack. Now, now, Donald Trump should do what Donald Trump proposed in the first administration, what Ronald Reagan did after the bomb of 1983. He’s gone. There is no reason for us to be in Syria. We need to get out of Syria and not be a springboard to get involved in another war.
On the possibility of a one-year extension for ACA subsidies
Pablo: Look, in our country we have health care for the poor. It’s called Medicaid. All the rest of this stuff hasn’t worked. Obamacare has been a failure. President Obama said he would reduce premiums. Premiums have skyrocketed. Every time we give more subsidies, premiums go up. I have a plan that says everyone in this market, and it’s only about 4%, everyone in this market should be able to go to Amazon or Costco or Sam’s Club and as a group, a large group – millions of people in the group – negotiate with the big insurers to lower their prices. It is the only proposal that has the possibility of lowering prices.
