GOP Civil War Erupts Over Trump-Backed ‘Doge Bill’ as Rand Paul Leads Senate Revolt
In a growing display of internal division, the Republican Party is facing a sharp internal rebellion in the Senate over the House-passed “Doge Bill” — a sweeping package of tariffs, tax cuts, and spending proposals touted by former President Donald Trump as a major win for American workers. The bill, dubbed by some as the “big, beautiful bill,” is now in jeopardy as Senator Rand Paul and at least three other Republican senators threaten to block its passage.
Paul has emerged as a vocal critic of the bill, calling out its ballooning costs and lack of genuine deficit reduction. In a recent appearance on CBS’s Face the Nation, Paul stated unequivocally that he could not support the bill in its current form, citing concerns over its $5 trillion debt ceiling increase and the deceptive nature of its proposed savings.
“There are four of us at this point,” Paul said when asked how many Republican senators stood with him in opposition — a number that would be enough to doom the legislation in a tightly divided Senate.
While Paul expressed openness to supporting a modified version of the bill, he made it clear that raising the debt ceiling was a red line: “If you take the debt ceiling off the bill, in all likelihood I can vote for the rest. But I can’t vote for a $5 trillion debt hike. Who’s left in Washington that actually cares about the debt?”
The rift exposes deeper tensions within the GOP. While Paul maintains his identity as a libertarian conservative who advocates for low taxes and restrained government spending, he has been consistent in his criticism of Trump’s economic nationalism and tariff-heavy policies. “Tariffs are a tax,” Paul reiterated, pushing back against Trump’s framing of tariffs as a punishment for foreign nations. He argued that these tariffs hurt American businesses — particularly in his home state of Kentucky, where industries ranging from bourbon to freight shipping to hardwood flooring oppose the measures.
In a pointed remark, Paul noted that while Republicans love to rail against debt and deficits under Democratic administrations, they abandon these principles when it comes to their own agenda. “Even his own party doesn’t care about the debt — they just use it as a political cudgel,” he said.
The economic math behind the bill also came under fire. Paul highlighted that the spending increases in the legislation — including $320 billion in new outlays for the military and border enforcement — exceed the cuts the bill claims to make. “They’ve inflated the cost of the wall eightfold,” he said, referencing the $46.5 billion allocated for a border wall when current cost estimates are vastly lower.
Further scrutiny of the bill’s fiscal claims reveals even more troubling details. Many of the so-called “savings” in the bill stem from previously canceled contracts or speculative future cuts that may never materialize. Some are simply clerical tricks, such as mislabeling millions as billions, creating a misleading picture of fiscal responsibility.
In a recent tweet, Trump warned Paul that if he votes against the bill, “the people of Kentucky will never forgive you.” Paul brushed off the warning and claimed to have had a candid discussion with Trump about tariffs. “He did most of the talking, and we don’t agree,” Paul remarked dryly.
The standoff underscores a growing ideological rift in the GOP. On one side stands the traditional, free-market Republican wing — typified by figures like Mitt Romney — and on the other, the MAGA movement led by Trump, which blends populist rhetoric with economic inconsistency and an increasingly authoritarian political posture.
While Paul is often viewed as an ideological outlier, his refusal to fall in line this time may carry broader implications. If he and three other GOP senators follow through on their pledge to block the bill, it could spell the end of Trump’s most significant legislative initiative this election cycle — a symbolic and practical defeat that could fracture the fragile alliance holding today’s Republican Party together.
And perhaps most striking of all: despite all the bluster about border security and economic revitalization, the Trump-led GOP still has no new trade agreements to show for its efforts. As internal divisions deepen, the Republican Party faces not just a legislative setback, but an existential identity crisis.
