With his retirement now imminent, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) is sharing new details about the souring of his relationship with President Donald Trump.
Tillis is set to unveil a new book, “How to Lose Friends and Antagonize Presidents,” next week. Politico’s Playbook newsletter on Thursday published screenshots of a pair of expletive-laden texts included in the book, which Tillis says he sent to Trump earlier this year that offer a rough timeline of their falling-out.
“I still want to help but I don’t take this bullshit from anyone, including you Mr. President,” he wrote in a May 22 text. “Save that shit for the cowards who don’t care if you fail. I care if you fail and right now we are failing.”
Tillis’ message appeared to be a response to Trump’s screed describing him as “weak and ineffective” and a “Nitpicker,” which the president posted on Truth Social that same day.
In a second message, dated June 6, Tillis seemingly responds to Trump having deemed him a “loser” and “just an angry man” in an interview with reporters aboard Air Force One that same week.
“As I have said before, you NEVER threatened me with a primary challenge,” Tillis wrote. “I get that you may have me confused with so many Republicans that you have threatened in the past, but NEVER me.”
He went on to note: “If you had ever threatened me directly with a primary, I would have immediately told you to fuck yourself, and I would have announced my retirement immediately. Save those threats and head games for cowards and fools.”
Days before Trump’s Air Force One remarks, Tillis said he’d oppose Todd Blanche’s nomination for attorney general unless Blanche publicly denounced the pro-Trump mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
“I don’t think that people have to go too far to see that anybody who equivocates and supported the thugs that harmed police officers will never get my vote in committee or on the floor,” the senator told Spectrum News reporter Reuben Jones May 21.
In August, however, Blanche secured Tillis’ support after he announced he’d issued an order rescinding Trump’s $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund from which many of the since-pardoned Jan. 6 rioters were expected to seek compensation.
Tillis, alongside fellow outgoing Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), has emerged as one of the Trump administration’s most outspoken GOP critics in recent months, no doubt emboldened by his decision to retire at the end of his term in January. Cornyn lost the Texas Republican Senate primary in May to his GOP challenger, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who had secured Trump’s endorsement.
Due out Oct. 6, “How to Lose Friends and Antagonize Presidents” is being touted by its publishers as a no-holds-barred look at Tillis’ years in Washington, D.C., as well as his take on “how the sycophants surrounding President Trump, spineless Republican yes-men (and -women), and the weirdos of the MAGA world can’t get out of their own way.”