Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) cozied up to Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) after President Donald Trump snubbed him on Tuesday.

Trump hosted a Senate Republican lunch at the White House Rose Garden on Tuesday, where he noted that Paul was the only GOP senator not in attendance. Paul, who voted against the GOP spending bill to reopen the government, later clarified that he was not invited to the White House lunch.

Instead, Paul met with Massie — the GOP lawmaker pushing for the release of files related to Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking case. Both Paul and Massie have also criticized Republicans and Trump for not focusing on the national deficit and spending cuts.

“I actually wasn’t invited to the White House lunch today, but that’s ok I had a previously scheduled Liberty Caucus Lunch with ⁦@MassieforKY,” Paul wrote on social media platform X alongside a photo of the two Kentucky Republicans.

During the GOP lunch, Trump jabbed Paul for voting “no on everything.”

“We have everybody one but person,” Trump said. “You’ll never guess who that is.”

Trump railed against both Paul and Massie in a Truth Social post last week.

“Whatever happened to ‘Senator’ Rand Paul? He was never great, but he went really BAD! I got him elected, TWICE (in the Great Commonwealth of Kentucky!), but he just never votes positively for the Republican Party. He’s a nasty liddle’ guy, much like ‘Congressman’ Thomas Massie, aka Rand Paul Jr., also of Kentucky (which I won three times, in massive landslides!), a sick Wacko, who refuses to vote for our great Republican Party, MAGA, or America First. It’s really weird!!!” Trump wrote.

Paul joined Massie last month to help him campaign in his Kentucky district despite Trump demanding that Massie be challenged in his primary. Trump’s attacks toward Massie have only boosted the GOP congressman’s campaign, who posted the best fundraising quarter of his career last week.

Massie is running headlong into his toughest political fight as a super PAC launched by Trump aides attacks him and he awaits a potential challenge from someone backed by the president. Massie has drawn the president’s wrath for opposing him on budget and foreign policy issues but is betting that Kentuckians will embrace his independent streak despite Trump’s popularity in the Bluegrass State.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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