Tillis breaks with Trump's advisers, not Trump, in his final Senate year

WASHINGTON — Sen. Thom Tillis said he is “sick of stupid” on the Senate floor as the North Carolina Republican used the opening weeks of 2026 to rebuke senior White House aides over Greenland military threats, European tariffs, a Justice Department probe of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, and pardons for Jan. 6 defendants who attacked police.

The two-term Republican, who is not seeking reelection, directed most of his criticism at aides rather than at President Donald Trump — a distinction that has drawn sustained media attention and elicited a measured response from the president.

Tillis has become one of the few Republicans willing to speak publicly against the White House’s direction, framing his objections as concerns about the quality of counsel reaching Trump. “I really want this president to be very, very successful,” Tillis said this week. “And a part of his legacy is going to be based on picking and choosing the right advice from people in his administration.”

Greenland and Miller

Tillis reserved particular criticism for deputy White House chief of staff Stephen Miller, who told CNN in a forceful interview that Greenland “should be part of the United States.” Tillis said Miller had made comments “out of his depth.”

“I don’t want some staffer telling me what my position is on something,” Tillis said.

Tillis was one of only two Republicans — along with Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski — to participate in a congressional delegation to Denmark this week as Trump threatened to seize Greenland. Murkowski, passing Tillis in the Capitol after his floor remarks, called out “good speech!,” the Associated Press reported.

Tillis also posted on social media criticizing Trump’s tariffs on eight European nations that have opposed U.S. control of Greenland, again directing his fire at those around the president. “The fact that a small handful of ‘advisors’ are actively pushing for coercive action to seize territory of an ally is beyond stupid,” Tillis wrote.

Jan. 6 anniversary

On the fifth anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol attack, Tillis helped broker a deal to publicly display a plaque honoring officers who defended the building — a display that House Speaker Mike Johnson had held up. Speaking from the Senate floor, Tillis called the attack “one of the worst days in my 11 years in the U.S. Senate.”

He went on to criticize Trump’s sweeping pardons of Jan. 6 defendants, including those who assaulted police, while stopping short of directly blaming the president.

“The president, on the advice of somebody in the White House — and I hope I find out the name of that person — also pardoned criminals who injured police officers and destroyed this building,” Tillis said from the floor.

Noem and the Minneapolis shooting

Tillis also raised questions about Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s public statements after an ICE officer fatally shot Renee Good in Minneapolis. Hours after the shooting, while an FBI investigation was still unfolding, Noem defended the officer and said Good “attempted to run a law enforcement officer over.”

Tillis said the next day he was “surprised by the level of certainty in her comments” and suggested Noem’s statements had shaped Trump’s own remarks. “She’s advising the president so the president’s comments had to have come I assume through the advice of the secretary,” he said.

Trump’s response

When asked this week about Tillis’s criticism of the Fed probe, Trump offered a restrained reply. “That’s why Thom’s not going to be a senator any longer, I guess,” Trump said. “Look, I like Thom Tillis. But he’s not going to be a senator any longer because of views like that.”

The relationship between the two men hit a low point last summer when Tillis voted against Trump’s sweeping tax and spending cuts package, one of only two Senate Republicans to do so. Trump at the time said on social media that Tillis was “a talker and complainer, NOT A DOER.” Tillis announced his retirement shortly after casting that vote.

Tillis, 65, said he approaches the issues from a business perspective, drawing on roughly 25 years in the private sector before entering politics — he served as speaker of North Carolina’s House of Representatives from 2011 to 2015 before winning his first Senate term. “Sometimes there’s just things that people need to say, ‘not a good idea, not in our best interest, hard to implement,’” he said.

The White House did not respond to the Associated Press’s request for comment on Tillis’s assessments of Trump’s aides. Tillis rejected any suggestion that his impending departure from the Senate explains his recent posture, calling the notion “hysterical.”