President Donald Trump — under heavy fire from Democrats and Republicans who say he kowtowed to Russian President Vladimir Putin and dismissed U.S. intelligence — tweeted a "thank you" to Sen. Rand Paul on Tuesday for sticking up for him.
In an interview with "CBS This Morning," the Kentucky Republican said the president should be lauded for being willing to sit down with enemies to prevent war.
"Yes, the vast majority of the foreign policy community, the bipartisan consensus said you shouldn't meet with Putin," Paul said.
"They also said he shouldn't meet with [North Korea leader] Kim [Jong Un] and this is an extraordinary thing about President Trump that should be lauded and not belittled is that he is willing to meet with adversaries to try to prevent us from having World War 3."
Earlier, he told Politico that the fierce blowback against the commander in chief is the result of "Trump derangement syndrome."
"Republicans that are making the criticism are either the pro-war Republicans like [Sens. John] McCain and [Lindsey] Graham or the anti-Trump ones like [Ben] Sasse. They are motivated by their persistent and consistent dislike of the president," Paul said.