Rand Paul

The Kentucky fiscal hawk told reporters in Washington, D.C. Tuesday that he’s “never been a big fan of goose-stepping soldiers in big tanks and missiles rolling down the street. So if you asked me, I wouldn't have done it,” Fox News Chief National Security Correspondent Jennifer Griffin reported on X.

Paul said he’s not sure what the actual cost of the parade will be, and then took his criticism a step further by comparing it to the military parades of strongman states.

“We were always different than the images you saw of the Soviet Union and North Korea. We were proud not to be that. And I don't, I'm not proposing that that's the image people want to project, but I'm worried about the image that it isn't necessarily the best image to show,” Paul said.