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Paul was one of 22 senators to sign a letterto President Donald Trump urging him to have the United States withdraw from the Paris Agreement in May 2017.

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According to The Guardian, Paul has received over $250,000 from oil, gas and coal interests since 2012.

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In July, Rand Paul joined Reps. Justin Amash (R-MI), Thomas Massie (R-KY), John Duncan Jr. (R-TN) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in opposing a bill that would impose new economic sanctions against Russia, Iran, and North Korea.

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President Trump opposed the bill, pointing out that relations with Russia were already "at an all-time and dangerous low".

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He did, however, sign the bill though likely out of political pressure.

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On September 5, the Trump administration announced the intended rescission of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

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In tweets responding to the act, Paul stated the executive order that created DACA was illegal and congressional bipartisanship was needed to solve or fix the program.

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Paul confirmed in an October 2017 interview he would not vote for the Republican budget in the Senate unless billions in spending were removed from the plan: "If leadership is unwilling to compromise with somebody who is concerned about the debt, then they deserve to lose.

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"In February 2018, Republican Senators introduced an immigration framework akin to that proposed by President Trump and with his support that called for $25 billion being provided for border security in exchange for a pathway to citizenship for 1.8 million immigrants brought into the US illegally.

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Paul was one of fourteen Republican Senators to vote against the proposal.

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FiveThirtyEight, which tracks Congressional votes, found that Paul had voted with Donald Trump's positions the least out of all Republicans, only voting with him 74% of the time by August 2018.

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In December 2018, in the wake of court filings implicating President Trump's involvement in campaign finance violations, including an attempt to buy a woman's silence, Paul played down the alleged violations and said that they should not be "over-criminalized.

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"Paul said that the campaign finance violations were "an error in filing paperwork or not categorizing" and that going after such violations would turn the U.S. into a "banana republic, where every president gets prosecuted and every president gets thrown in jail when they're done with office.

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"Paul introduced a bill on January 25, 2017, that sought to replace the Affordable Care Act which included each person's having a tax credit of $5,000 and not requiring everyone to have coverage, unlike Obamacare.

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On March 2, after marching to the House of Representatives side of Capitol Hill, Paul was filmed knocking on a door while demanding to see their copy of the replacing and repealing the Affordable Care Act bill.

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Paul spoke with President Trump over the phone on March 6, Paul telling him that the repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act should be two separate bills.

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Two days later, Paul said Republicans were united in repealing the Affordable Care Act but divided in their stances on its replacement.

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On March 12, Paul accused House Speaker Paul Ryan of being misleading in portraying supporters of the American Health Care Act of 2017 as not being negotiable,and three days later, March 15, furthered that Ryan was "selling" President Trump "a bill of goods" that he had not explained fully to the president.

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After the bill was pulled by Republican leaders from a vote, Paul released a statement on March 24 thanking House conservatives for rebelling "against ObamaCare Lite.

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"Later, on April 2, Paul golfed with Trump and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney at the Trump National Golf Club in Virginia, where they discussed a variety of topics, including healthcare.

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Paul told reporters on June 15 that he was willing to vote for a partial repeal, but not the implementation of new Republican entitlement programs, which he identified as present in both House and Senate versions of the bill.

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Paul also told reporters on September 11 that he did not believe the Graham-Cassidy bill would pass.

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Paul tweeted on September 15 that Graham-Cassidy retained "90% of Obamacare" and dubbed it "more Obamacare Lite".

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On September 19, Paul asserted the Graham-Cassidy bill as immortalizing the Affordable Care Act and "a big government boondoggle of a trillion dollars of spending" that Republicans should abandon in favor of pursuing measures that would allow for health insurance to be purchased across state lines.

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On September 22, after President Trump tweeted that "Rand Paul, or whoever votes against Hcare Bill, will forever (future political campaigns) be known as 'the Republican who saved Obamacare'", Paul responded that he would not be coerced into supporting Graham-Cassidy with bribes or bullying.

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In January 2019, Paul condemned Senator Mitt Romney for writing an editorial criticizing President Trump.

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Paul said that Romney's criticism of Trump's character was bad for the country and for the Republican Party.

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On July 17, 2019, Paul blocked Senator Kirsten Gillibrand's motion for unanimous consent on a bill renewing the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund along with Utah Senator Mike Lee.

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The fund was estimated to run out by the end of the year; the bill would renew it until the year 2090.

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Paul argued that he was not blocking the bill, but rather seeking a vote on an amendment that would offset the new spending by other spending cuts due to the deficit.

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In a segment on Fox News, which went viral, comedian Jon Stewart and 9/11 first responder John Feal rebuked Paul, accusing him of hypocritical "fiscal responsibility virtue signalling", for delaying passage of the bill, while at the same time he voted in favor of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which increased the deficit.

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In response, Paul said he has always insisted on "pay-go provisions" for any increase in spending, including for disaster relief funding, and called Stewart uninformed and a part of a "left-wing mob".

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On November 4, 2019, Paul called on the media to reveal the secret identity of Trump's Ukraine quid pro quo whistleblower after threatening to reveal the name himself.

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In February 2020, Paul criticized YouTube for removing a video of his floor speech about the impeachment trial of Donald Trump.

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His speech contained a controversial question for impeachment manager Adam Schiff and counsel for the president: "Are you aware that House Intelligence Committee staffer Shawn Misko had a close relationship with [...] when at the National Security Council together?

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"On February 26, 2020, Paul's wife purchased between $1,000 and $15,000 worth of stock in Gilead Sciences, a pharmaceutical company that produces an antiviral drug used to treat COVID-19, before the threat from the coronavirus was fully understood by the public; his disclosure of this transaction came 16 months after the legal deadline set forth in the Stock Act, a law that combats insider trading.

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Paul's office stated that the disclosure form was filled up on time, but by mistake was not submitted.

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This purchase was the only stock in an individual company that Paul or his wife bought in the previous 10 years.

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In September 2020, Paul was the lone Republican to vote against the COVID-19 aid package introduced by Senator Mitch McConnell, joining the Democrats who unanimously voted against it.

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Paul's grievance with the bill was the accumulation to the debt it would have triggered.

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After the 2020 presidential election, Paul refused to accept Democratic candidate Joe Biden's victory against Trump and falsely claimed that the election was "stolen.

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"Initially, Paul insisted that the 2020 elections were fraudulent,and in December 2020, claimed that the election "in many ways was stolen.

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"Later, he accepted the state-certified electors that named Biden.

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In a press release and during the Electoral College session to count the vote, which followed the 2021 United States Capitol attack, Paul argued that the electoral college is an indispensable friend of democracy in checking the danger of centralized power in deciding elections.

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He additionally condemned the attack while it occurred, calling it "violence and mob rule" and "un-American."

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He blamed the rioters as setting back election reform discussions and asked them to "just stop it.

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"Later that month, Paul continued to make false claims of fraud in the 2020 election and refused to say that the election was not stolen.

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In the subsequent second impeachment trial of Trump, which sought to convict him on charges of incitement of insurrection, Paul questioned the constitutionality of it due to Trump having left office by the time it reached the Senate, as well as defending him against the charges, "I want Democrats to raise their hands if they have ever given a speech that says 'take back,' 'fight for your country,' who hasn't used the words fight figuratively?

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"Once Trump was impeached in January 2021, Paul introduced a motion to the Senate declaring the impeachment to be unconstitutional.

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Five Republicans joined all 50 Democrats to defeat the motion 55 to 45.

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With 45 Republican senators supporting him, Paul stated the impeachment was 'dead on arrival'.

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Paul formally voted against the charges on February 13, 2021.

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In January 2022, a video resurfaced of Paul advising medical students at the University of Louisville in 2013, during which he said "misinformation works, so try to trick your opponents".

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In May 2022, Paul blocked a bipartisan bill that would provide $40 billion in aid for Ukraine during the Russian invasion, citing the need to create a special inspector general to oversee how the aid is spent.

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Committee assignments On February 3, 2021, Paul was named a ranking member of the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee.

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Caucuses Paul was considered a potential candidate for the Republican nomination for the Presidency of the United States since at least January 2013.

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He delivered the Tea Party response to President Barack Obama's State of the Union address on February 13, 2013,while Marco Rubio gave the official Republican response.

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This prompted some pundits to call that date the start of the 2016 Republican primaries.

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That year, he spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington D.C., where he won the 2016 Presidential straw poll.

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Paul went on to win the straw poll for the next two years as well, leading to some considering Paul to be a front runner for the nomination, although CPAC attendees are typically considered younger and more libertarian-minded than average Republican voters.

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In a speech at the GOP Freedom Summit in April 2014, Paul insisted that the GOP has to broaden its appeal in order to grow as a party.

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To do so, he said it cannot be the party of "fat cats, rich people and Wall Street" and that the conservative movement has never been about rich people or privilege, "we are the middle class", he said.

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Paul also said that conservatives must present a message of justice and concern for the unemployed and be against government surveillance to attract new people to the movement, including the young, Hispanics, and black voters.

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During the 2014 election, Paul launched a social media campaign titled "Hillary's Losers" which was meant to highlight many of the Democratic candidates that lost their bids for the U.S. Senate despite endorsements from Hillary Clinton.

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Clinton was also a candidate for President and eventually won the Democratic Party's nomination, going on to lose to Donald Trump in the general election.

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Paul began to assemble his campaign team, setting up campaign offices and hiring his campaign manager in the beginning of 2015, fueling speculation that he was preparing to enter the Presidential race.

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Paul officially announced his presidential candidacy on April 7, 2015.

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Within a day of his announcement, Paul raised $1 million.

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In April 2011, Paul filed to run for re-election to his Senate seat in 2016.

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Had he become the Republican presidential (or vice-presidential) nominee, state law would prohibit him from simultaneously running for re-election.

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In March 2014, the Republican-controlled Kentucky Senate passed a bill that would allow Paul to run for both offices, but the Democratic-controlled Kentucky House of Representatives declined to take it up.

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Paul spent his own campaign money in the 2014 legislative elections, helping Republican candidates for the State House in the hopes of flipping the chamber, thus allowing the legislature to pass the bill (Democratic Governor Steve Beshear's veto can be overridden with a simple majority).

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However, the Democrats retained their 54–46 majority in the State House.

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Paul has since given his support to the idea that the Kentucky Republican Party could decide to hold a caucus rather than a primary, potentially giving Paul more time to decide whether he should run for U.S.

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Senator or continue a potential bid for president.

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Paul announced the suspension of his presidential campaign on February 3, 2016, shortly after the Iowa caucus, where he finished in fifth place.

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A supporter of the Tea Party movement,Paul has described himself as a "constitutional conservative".

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He is generally described as a libertarian, a term he both embracedand rejectedduring his first Senate campaign.

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He supports term limits, a balanced budget amendment, and the Read the Bills Act, in addition to the widespread reduction of federal spending and taxation.

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He favors a flat tax rate of 14.5% for individuals and business, while eliminating the FICA payroll taxes, as well as taxes on inheritance, gifts, capital gains, dividends, and interest.

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Paul has frequently appeared on Infowars with radio show host and right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.

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Ideologically, the American Conservative Union has given Paul a lifetime conservative rating of 96% and the Conservative Review gave him a 92% score.

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Since the 2016 Republican primary, when Paul was highly critical of Trump, he has "become one of the president's closest allies despite occasionally voting against Trump's nominees and legislative proposals.

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"As of June 2020, according to FiveThirtyEight, Paul had voted with President Trump's position on congressional issues 70% of the time, the second lowest among all Republican senators.

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Paul describes himself as "100% pro life", believing that legal personhood begins at fertilization.

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In 2009, his position was to ban abortion under all circumstances.

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Since 2010, he has said he would allow for a doctor's discretion in life-threatening cases such as ectopic pregnancies.

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In 2011, Paul signed onto the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act which was intended to prohibit federal funding for abortion, with the exception of abortions in the case of rape, incest, and to save the life of the mother.

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In 2017, following President Trump's decision to repeal the previous Obama Administration's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) order, Paul outlined his own solution to the issue of undocumented immigration which included naturalizing DACA beneficiaries over a five-year period as part of the yearly immigrant quota, and also endorsed a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants in general.

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Paul said he opposes gross spending on the border, and feels sympathy for most immigrants regardless of status, the DACA beneficiaries in particular.

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Paul was one of 11 Republicans in 2019 to vote against Trump's demand for "emergency border funding".

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Paul has said that same-sex marriage "offends and a lot of people" on a personal level, and said there is a "crisis that allows people to think there would be some other sorts of marriage.

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"Prior to the Supreme Court's 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges legalizing same-sex marriage across the United States, Paul held the view that the decision to ban same-sex marriage should be in the hands of states.

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Following the Court's decision, Paul said in 2015, "While I disagree with Supreme Court's redefinition of marriage, I believe that all Americans have the right to contract.

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The Constitution is silent on the question of marriage because marriage has always been a local issue.

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Our founding fathers went to the local courthouse to be married, not to Washington, D.C.

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I've often said I don't want my guns or my marriage registered in Washington.

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"During Rachel Levine's confirmation hearing with the Senate HELP Committee to be Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Biden, Paul compared transgender medicine to "genital mutilation" and accused her of supporting "surgical destruction of a minor's genitalia."

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Paul was rebuked by committee chairman Patty Murray, as well as multiple House and Senate Democrats, who were to vote on the Equality Act that same day.

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Unlike his more stridently "non-interventionist" father, Paul concedes a role for American armed forces abroad, including permanent foreign military bases.

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