President Donald Trump ranted against Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), a frequent critic of the president who most recently criticized the creation of a $1.8 billion slush fund.
“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 shared on Truth Social Friday. “Now he can have all the fun he wants for a few months, with some of his RINO friends, screwing the Republican Party. In the end it will only get bigger, and better, and stronger, than ever before!!!”
In an interview with Politico published Friday, Tillis — who is not running for reelection — explained some of his opposition to Trump, arguing he’s concerned about the president’s legacy and claiming “he has people working for him who couldn’t give a shit about” it.
Tillis expressed concern for Trump’s legacy after the senator announced in 2025 that he wouldn’t run for reelection, claiming the president was getting “bad advice” from “unelecteds in the White House.” In the Politico interview, he specifically called out Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s advice to the president on the war in Iran and claimed he’d love to see Hegseth fired because “he’s incompetent and doing a horrible job.”
Tillis said he also worries about Republicans’ chances in the November midterm elections.
“Every time I have opposed this president is because I believe it’s at odds with getting Republicans reelected,” Tillis said.
President Donald Trump ranted about Sen. Thom Tillis after the retiring lawmaker again expressed concern about Trump’s legacy.
Tillis has been a frequent critic and opponent of Trump. Earlier this week, he called the president’s 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.
He previously slammed Trump’s mass pardon of those charged with crimes related to Jan. 6.
“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 said in a speech on the Senate floor in January.
He called Trump’s tariffs a “dud” and “objectively a failure,” and has been a vocal critic of the way the administration handled the files related to the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
Despite their public disagreements, Tillis told Politico the two still communicate regularly.
“We’ve continued to have solid communications,” Tillis 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.”
