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Speaking as part of Dartmouth’s Law and Democracy: The United States at 250 series on Nov. 14, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky, outlined his disagreements with the Trump administration on some major issues while also encouraging the audience to view the future with optimism rather than dread.

A conservative Republican with a libertarian streak, Paul said that over centuries, the free market system has led to greater health and prosperity for a greater number of people worldwide. 

Paul issued a caution, noting that while he has been in the wing of the party that believes in smaller, more local government with consistent checks and balances, he now has concerns that today’s Republican Party has “become more about loyalty to one person. And I think that is a problem.”

Paul spoke to about 200 people in Loew Auditorium, with another 150 . The series is co-sponsored by the and Dartmouth Dialogues, and the student-run Dartmouth Political Union also sponsored Paul’s appearance.

Paul discussed what he sees as the danger to the country of a ballooning national deficit, his quarrel with the administration’s tariff policy, the future of artificial intelligence, and the recent governmental shutdown, the longest in U.S. history.

The Q&A portion of the talk was moderated by Eli Moyse ’27, an opinion editor and columnist at The Dartmouth who is also with the Dartmouth Political Union.

Paul, who is chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, took issue with the Trump administration for military strikes on boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific that it alleges are part of the illegal fentanyl trade. The Justice Department has said that the administration does not need Congressional approval to blow up these boats, the majority of which have originated in Venezuela and Colombia. The strikes have killed 83 people to date, according to CNN.

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������ý 200 people watched the Nov. 14 talk in Loew Auditorium. (Photo by Kata Sasvari)

Along with U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Paul was one of only two Republicans to join Democrats who voted in October to curb President Trump’s power to launch military strikes without Congressional authorization, according to the New York Times. Republicans ultimately blocked the Democratic resolution. 

“When the Coast Guard boards boats off of Miami to look for drugs, one in four boats don’t have any drugs on them. So if you’re content with just blowing up people, if your error rate is 25%, go for it,” Paul said. He disagreed with Vice President JD Vance, who called the airstrikes on boats purported to ferrying illegal drugs to the U.S. the “highest and best use of our military.”

An ophthalmologist and eye surgeon, Paul said Vance’s statement on X showed “a callous disregard for life.” Further, he said, Venezuelan drug cartels do not manufacture fentanyl. But on this issue, he said, he is in a distinct minority within his party and has been vilified as a result.

Nonetheless, he said, “it’s worth standing up on on these things, because someone has to.”

Paul went into detail on the recently concluded governmental shutdown, noting that some reporting has tended to frame the issue as one party being for opening the government while the other party is against it. 

“I know nobody who’s really for closing the government. I know nobody who’s for the disruption of it,” said Paul, who, because of his concerns about deficit spending, was the lone Republican in the Senate to vote against the budget.

What has not been widely reported, Paul said, is that the latest Republican budget proposal was the mirror of the Democratic proposal of December 2024. But when Trump took office, the position of each party flipped. 

“All the Democrats are voting ‘No’ for the same spending levels they all voted ‘Yes’ for the previous year. And then all the Republicans who voted against it when it was the Biden spending level are now voting yes,” Paul said.

What effect this spending will have on a nearly $2 trillion national deficit is the great question, Paul said.

Interwoven with the growing national deficit is President Trump’s tariff policy, which Paul cited as the area where the president has most exceeded his Constitutional authority. Trump “basically declared an emergency with 130 countries, and he’s setting the tariffs by fiat. The Constitution was very clear. Taxes, including levies or tariffs, are to be passed by the House first, go on to the Senate, and then sent to the president,” Paul said.

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U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., signed copies of his book Deception: The Great Covid Cover-Up after the Law and Democracy event. (Photo by Kata Sasvari)

The full effect of the tariff policy on the U.S. is beginning to be felt, Paul said. As a senator in a largely rural state, Paul said he already sees problems in Kentucky’s farming sector. 

“There’s a great chance of farming bankruptcies, and some of them are happening as we speak,” Paul said. He is also skeptical, he said, of Trump’s recent promise to issue $2,000 tariff revenue checks to U.S. taxpayers. 

“We have a $2 trillion deficit, and we’re gonna take the tax money that’s coming in and give it back to you. It absolutely makes no sense,” Paul said. However, he said that unless Trump’s economic policies result in calamity, he doesn’t think fellow Republicans will stand up to the president.

In response to student questions about AI, Paul said that while he was concerned about its use by government, he did not fear that AI would replace human beings in the workforce. In fact, he said, that when it comes to investing in AI, he has “a sort of a nagging sense that the market is a little bit giddy.”

Generations have feared innovations such as the automated loom and electricity, Paul said. But “we usually figure out a way to get beyond it.”

Overall, humanity should not fear its future because, Paul said, “the greatest resource is human ingenuity.”

For that reason Americans should welcome immigration, not fear it. “It’s like you are mining the greatest resources in the world, and they come to your country.”

Contrary to public belief, Paul said, the US and its people are experiencing greater prosperity. With the exception of the last four years, in which wages lagged behind inflation and people lost money, Paul said, the country overall has experienced “upward mobility. The country is getting richer. People are getting richer.”

The US has arrived there, not by accident, but because of the “system of free trade between individuals who live in the same place, but also free trade and voluntary exchange between us and the world. And I hope we’ll get that lesson, remember it, and keep our country the great country that it is,” Paul said.

After the talk, Josh Montvelisky ’29 said that Paul “made some very interesting points, especially regarding the recent shutdown and his own stance on that. I think that it’s a perspective that you don’t hear often.”

Landon Parrish ’29, an Alabamian, said he appreciated hearing Paul’s Southern point-of-view, particularly because of the importance of farming in both Kentucky and Alabama. “I think it’s a unique perspective that we don’t get in the limelight very often,” Parrish said. 

“What I found interesting is he went so in depth on why he mostly disagrees with the party he’s mostly associated with. I think that was a really great talking point,” Parrish said.