Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky told reporters that he was not invited to today’s White House lunch with Republican senators and former President Trump, NBC News reports.

Paul, the only Republican who has repeatedly voted against the House of Representatives’ short-term spending bill aimed at reopening the government, said that being excluded by the White House “is not really a smart strategy, but that’s their prerogative.”

“They run things there and can decide whom they want to invite. In my opinion, ultimately, that’s not the best tactic for them,” he added.

Paul and his family were not invited in June to a White House garden party, but after public discussion on the matter, President Donald Trump sent an invitation to the senator via the Truth Social platform. Today at noon, Trump joked that Paul was not invited to the “Rose Garden” event.

“The White House is not inviting Rand Paul to the Rose Garden lunch,” Trump continued. “Everyone else came. I thought about 40 people would be a good number, right? We’re just missing one person, and you’ll never guess who it is. Let me tell you, he automatically votes ‘no’ on everything. He thinks that’s good politics… Actually, it’s not really good politics. He automatically says ‘no,’ but I don’t know. Look, if he wanted to come, I’d probably let him come, right?”