Supporters of Vice President JD Vance were surprised by Sen. Rand Paul's unprovoked social media attack for supporting the president's decision to blow up a boat carrying drugs. 

A source close to the vice president told the Daily Mail that Vance was siding with Trump's effort to defend the American people from illegal drugs.

'The vice president believes in the Trump doctrine and using overwhelming force to protect core American interests and save American lives,' the source said.

Vance defenders pointed out that Sen. Paul supported President Barack Obama's accidental killing of two hostages in a drone attack in 2015, accusing him of being hypocritical.

At the time, Paul said that the action took place in a war zone were there was no 'due process' and defended Obama for 'trying to do the right thing.'

'These people were in a war zone and probably got what was coming to them – the captors. Unfortunately some innocent people also died,' he said.

The source close to Vance decried Paul as a 'hypocrite,' and pointed out 'during his failed run for president defended Obama droning American citizens without due process, but now is sticking up for foreign terrorists thanks to his debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.'

A Daily Mail request for comment from Paul's office was not returned.  

Trump said the boat was transporting illegal drugs from Venezuela to the United States and ordered the military to destroy it to send a message to drug cartels that he would not tolerate their efforts. 

The weekend social media clash began on Saturday after the vice president remarked that, 'killing cartel members who poison our fellow citizens is the highest and best use of our military.'

For Vance, the issue of illegal drug trafficking is personal, as his mother struggled throughout his childhood with addiction.

The Kentucky senator, however, famous for his more libertarian Republican views on the use of force reacted to the vice president later that evening.

'What a despicable and thoughtless sentiment it is to glorify killing someone without a trial,' he wrote, singling out Vance's post for criticism and asking the vice president if 'he ever read To Kill a Mockingbird.'

The senator further detailed to reporters on Monday that he was 'really ticked off' by Vance's post, criticizing him for 'glorify the idea of killing people without any due process and saying he just didn't give a shit what anybody who was going criticize him was going to say.'

'That to me was a disdain for human life and a disdain for processes,' Paul continued.

While Vance has not responded to Paul's criticism, Sen. Bernie Moreno reacted online to the Kentucky senator's post.

'What's really despicable is defending foreign terrorist drug traffickers who are *directly* responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans in Kentucky and Ohio,' Moreno wrote on social media. 'JD understands that our first responsibility is to protect the life and liberty of American citizens.'

Paul has clashed with the Trump administration on multiple occasions, most prominently his opposition to the president's tariffs policy and Trump's efforts to deploy the federal military in America's major cities.

Trump famously described Paul as 'the toughest vote in the history of the U.S. Senate' but the senator ultimately voted against the president's signature 'Big Beautiful Bill' for spending too much money.