Trump calls – President Donald Trump lashed out at Sen. Thom Tillis after the North Carolina Republican criticized the administration’s moves and warned about President Trump’s legacy, as well as Republicans’ prospects in the November midterms. Tillis, who is not running fo
For a senator who has spent much of the last few years sparring with President Donald Trump in public, the latest slap didn’t come quietly.
On Friday, Trump posted a rant on Truth Social aimed directly at Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), a frequent critic of the president. “The media said how brave he was to take me on, but he wasn’t brave, he was just the opposite — HE WAS A QUITTER!” Trump wrote.
He followed it with a sharper political warning, saying Tillis could be lining up with “some of his RINO friends” to “screwing the Republican Party.” Trump framed the fight as temporary, adding: “In the end it will only get bigger, and better, and stronger, than ever before!!!”
Tillis’s challenge to Trump, however, isn’t new—and it’s not just about one dispute. In an interview with Politico published Friday. Tillis explained why he has kept opposing the president. arguing he is concerned about Trump’s legacy and saying Trump has “people working for him who couldn’t give a shit about” it.
That warning has real stakes for Tillis, even as he sits out his next campaign cycle. Tillis is not running for reelection after announcing in 2025 that he wouldn’t seek another term, arguing Trump was getting “bad advice” from “unelecteds in the White House.”
In the Politico interview, Tillis pointed to a specific example: he criticized Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s advice to Trump on the war in Iran. Tillis said he would “love to see Hegseth fired” and called him “incompetent and doing a horrible job.”
Trump’s counterpunch landed just as Tillis was also turning his attention to electoral consequences. Tillis said he worries about Republicans’ chances in the November midterm elections, describing his opposition to Trump in terms of electoral arithmetic.
“Every time I have opposed this president is because I believe it’s at odds with getting Republicans reelected,” Tillis said.
The split has been building across multiple issues, and Tillis has made no effort to soften his tone. Earlier this week. he called Trump’s creation of a $1.8 billion slush fund “stupid on stilts” and said it’s “absurd” that the fund could potentially benefit those who assaulted police officers during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on Capitol Hill.
That skepticism about Trump’s approach to accountability also showed up after Trump’s mass pardon of people charged with crimes connected to Jan. 6. In a speech on the Senate floor in January. Tillis said. “We let bad people go. and we sent the message that if you come to the Capitol and you have the right president in office. he’s going to let you get past things that would not — that not any one of us would get away with if we did it back in our own home state.”.
Tillis has also attacked other parts of Trump’s policy agenda. He called Trump’s tariffs a “dud” and “objectively a failure.” He has also been vocal in criticizing the way the administration handled files related to the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
And yet, even as the public fighting continues, Tillis told Politico that the relationship still has an underlying working-channel.
“Despite their public disagreements, Tillis told Politico the two still communicate regularly,” the interview says. Tillis put it plainly: “We’ve continued to have solid communications,” he said. “But I’m not going to kiss this man’s ass or anybody else’s when I believe he’s not in a good place.”
The confrontation between Trump and Tillis now sits at the intersection of style and substance: Trump’s message is that dissent is disloyalty, while Tillis’s argument is that dissent is tied to what he sees as the president’s damage to his own legacy and to Republican chances in November.
Donald Trump Thom Tillis Truth Social GOP slush fund 1.8 billion Jan. 6 Pete Hegseth Iran November midterm elections tariffs Epstein