Tillis Promotes Book
Sen. Thom Tillis is preparing to leave the U.S. Senate, and the North Carolina Republican apparently has little interest in making his departure a quiet one.
Tillis appeared on MS NOW's "Morning Joe" Thursday as he begins promoting a new book with a title that gives a pretty good indication of what readers should expect: "How to Lose Friends and Antagonize Presidents: The Trouble with Sycophants, Courage Outsourcing, and Partisan Groupthink."
The two-term senator used the appearance to discuss his disagreements with the Trump administration, defend acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and take another swipe at some of President Donald Trump's most devoted supporters and advisers.
Tillis also celebrated the demise of the 1776 Fund, saying he was proud to "stick a fork" in it.
The fund had been created as part of a settlement between Trump's lawyers and the Internal Revenue Service following the unauthorized disclosure of Trump's tax information to news organizations. Blanche formally rescinded the fund, a move that Tillis welcomed.
That decision played a role in Tillis ultimately supporting Blanche after he and Sen. John Cornyn of Texas initially opposed moving his nomination through the Senate Judiciary Committee.
"I got to yes because Todd Blanche operated in good faith, exactly the way he did to de-escalate and resolve the problem I had with the president and Jay Powell," Tillis said.
His defense of Blanche was particularly notable given the setting.
The "Morning Joe" hosts repeatedly raised Blanche's previous work as Trump's personal attorney and questioned whether that relationship should disqualify him from confirmation. Tillis disagreed and continued defending Blanche despite his broader criticism of the administration.
For Tillis, the problem isn't apparently that everyone working for Trump is too loyal. His argument is that the president is poorly served when aides refuse to give him advice he doesn't want to hear.
"The big problem I have with this administration are people who are not protecting the president and are not giving him unvarnished advice," Tillis said, describing the Trump administration as a "difficult administration to work in."
That complaint fits with Tillis' previous criticism of administration officials, including Stephen Miller.
At the same time, Tillis wasn't interested in adopting the hosts' broader case against Trump. He said Trump "has a right" to be angry about Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and argued that what he described as the "hyper-prosecution" of Trump contributed to his victory in the 2024 election.
In other words, Tillis' position remains an unusual one within today's Republican Party. He is willing to defend Trump against some of his Democratic critics while simultaneously attacking people inside the president's political orbit.
His forthcoming book appears ready to take that conflict considerably further.
Publisher HarperCollins describes the book as a "bare-knuckled, darkly funny wake-up call" from "a true conservative who doesn't mind a good scrap in a Congress that has lost its nerve."
The promotional copy is even more pointed when describing Trump-world.
"Tillis takes us into a world of grifting sycophants and useful idiots in Trump 2.0, with the inner circle made up of 'MAGATS' (a term of his own devising)," the publisher states.
That's not exactly the language of a senator planning to retire and quietly disappear into private life.
Tillis has spent years occupying an uncomfortable position in Republican politics. He has supported much of the party's agenda while repeatedly clashing with Trump and some of the president's advisers. With his Senate career ending, the political cost of escalating those fights is considerably lower.