Outgoing North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis ripped into the Trump administration and predicted Republicans will suffer an electoral bloodbath in the midterm elections next month in a new expletive-laden book, “How to Lose Friends and Antagonize Presidents.”
The book will be released Tuesday, but Spectrum News received an early copy.
Tillis, who previously served as speaker of the House in the North Carolina General Assembly, said one of his proudest accomplishments during his political career was helping get federal recognition for the Lumbee Tribe over the finish line in 2025.
His biggest regret? Voting to confirm Pete Hegseth as secretary of Defense.
“I am writing this book to save my party from itself,” Tillis wrote. “And to save the president from the temptation and tragedies being set upon him by MAGA extremists.”
Criticisms
The book’s cover captures Tillis’ approach, focusing his fire on President Donald Trump’s top appointees, not on the president himself.
The cover features photos of some people Tillis believes have wreaked havoc on the country, including former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Hegseth and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Tillis said he harbored doubts about Kennedy and Hegseth, yet he voted to approve them and all other members of the president’s cabinet.
Tillis wrote that he regrets voting for some of those appointees, including Kennedy and Hegseth. He said he was called to the White House to meet with Vice President JD Vance and others who tried to convince him to vote for Hegseth during the confirmation process.
“What really made this a WTF moment was the utter conviction that all three of these guys had,” Tillis wrote. “To them, if President Trump said it, that was good as God saying it. I felt a pit in my stomach. Dealing with Trump 2.0 was going to be way harder than I’d thought.”
On the decision to vote for Hegseth, Tillis wrote, “My vote would be the one to sink him, and in the first weeks of a new administration, for a president I supported and for whom this meant so much, I just couldn’t do it.”
Tillis added, “I know for a fact that there are others like me: Republicans who agreed to go along with the early demands of the Trump team no matter how ridiculous they were, believing that failing to do so would mean the end of their political career, and who now see that things have gone way too far.”
He cites Hegseth’s germination of “solid career warfighters” and the removal of the Pentagon press corps as reasons the vote is his biggest regret.
Vote against One Big Beautiful Bill
He said he agrees with 90% of the White House’s preferred policy proposals, but defended his vote against the administration’s tax and spending legislation known as the One Big Beautiful Bill. Tillis said the Medicaid cuts will be disastrous for recipients and the North Carolina budget.
After he voted “no” on the procedural vote last summer and the president threatened on social media to back Tillis’ primary challenger, the two-term senator wrote he texted his staff, “F*** it. I’m done,” and he announced he wouldn’t seek re-election.
Tillis shared the text message he sent the president months later, when Trump again criticized him on Truth Social.
“I retired because you took advice from some asshole on healthcare policy that is going to harm North Carolina and kill Whatley’s chances,” Tillis texted the president, referring to Michael Whatley, who is running for Senate in North Carolina.
He added, “I still want to help, but I don’t take this bulls*** from anyone, including you, Mr. President. Save that s*** for the cowards who don’t care if you fail. I care if you fail, and right now we are failing.”
Tillis, who praised the president numerous times in the book, said he realizes some people will think he found the courage to speak out only after he retired. But he said he stood up to Trump on many occasions in his first term, too.
Still, Tillis wrote after deciding to retire that he “wasn’t quite as concerned about having to answer for my every statement during the next election cycle.” He said, “I’ll admit that the number of f***s I had to give did diminish pretty quickly.”
Tillis predicted Republicans will suffer an electoral bloodbath this November. He said he hopes they win the Senate, but there’s a risk they won’t.
If Republicans lose, Tillis said, “What I hope is that members of my party take the loss and learn something, specifically, that putting party affiliation—or loyalty to one man—before your own conscience never turns out well in the end.”
Spectrum News reached out to the White House on Monday morning for a statement on the Tillis’ book but didn’t hear back.
Source: spectrumlocalnews.com
