Sen. Thom Tillis, one of the most vocal GOP critics of Donald Trump, said he was "thrilled" to be called a "loser" by the president over his criticism of Kristi Noem, quipping that it would make him "qualified to be DHS secretary."

Tillis was one of the first Republicans to join with a growing number of congressional Democrats in calling for the removal of Noem as Homeland Security Secretary. Criticism of Noem's handling of the department has intensified over the last few weeks, as ICE and CBP agents launched an enormous deportation surge in the Minnesota Twin Cities area, and reached a boiling point this weekend after federal agents shot and killed U.S. citizen Alex Pretti.

In the wake of that tragedy, more lawmakers in Washington than ever joined the call for Noem to step down from her position or be fired. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said that Democrats would pursue an impeachment inquiry against her if she were not removed.

Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, alongside fellow GOP Trump enemy, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, were the first Republicans in Congress to publicly call for Noem's ouster over the handling of the Pretti situation. Tillis also called for the firing of Stephen Miller, one of Trump's closest advisers, known for his hardline anti-immigrant beliefs and heavy involvement in the administration's deportation efforts.

“I think what she’s done in Minnesota should be disqualifying,” Tillis told reporters on Tuesday. “It’s just amateurish. It’s terrible. It’s making the president look bad.”

In response, Trump took aim at Tillis and Murkowski in an ABC News interview on Wednesday, branding them as "losers."

“They’re terrible senators. One is gone, and the other should be gone,” Trump said. “What Murkowski says — she’s always against the Republicans anyway. And Tillis decided to drop out. So you know, he lost his voice once he did that.”

Speaking with CNN congressional correspondent Manu Raju, Tillis took a playful jab at the president's comment and said that he was "thrilled" to be called a loser.

“I am thrilled about that," Tillis said. "That makes me qualified to be homeland security secretary and senior adviser to the president.”

While Trump did order the removal of CBP commander Greg Bovino from his position on the ground leading immigration enforcement efforts in Minnesota, he has so far resisted calls to ditch Noem and Miller.

After President Donald Trump fired Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and nominated Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Oklahoma) for the position, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) called for Trump to fire another person in his second administration: White House adviser Stephen Miller.

Never Trump conservative Rick Wilson and liberal journalist Molly Jong-Fast discussed Tillis' outspokenness on a March 8 video for their YouTube show "Fast Politics." And they attributed Tillis' willingness to criticize Trump officials to the fact that the conservative senator isn't seeking reelection in the 2026 midterms.

Although Tillis plans to serve out the rest of his term, he will be exiting Congress in early January 2027. Tillis, facing an aggressive GOP primary challenge for not being MAGA enough, decided against seeking another term.

Jong-Fast, with amusement in her voice, said of Tillis, "He's had that thing where, when you're a Republican and you decide you're not going to run again, you become suddenly very brave."

Also sounding amused, Wilson — a former GOP strategist who expressed his disdain for President Donald Trump and the far-right MAGA movement by leaving the Republican Party and becoming an independent — told Jong-Fast, "You gain superpowers, in fact…. Incredible superpowers that allow you to have a shred of moral clarity for years of having your lips firmly attached to Trump's backside…. But Tillis has become a born-again hard MOFO, and he has been ripping the living hell out of tiny Santa Monica Goebbels, Stephen Miller, on the Sunday shows. It's been a delight. "

Jong-Fast, commenting on Trump's decision to fire Noem and nominate Mullin, told Wilson, "The real story here is Stephen Miller, who is running the show."

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Although firings were common during President Donald Trump's first term, he hasn't fired nearly as many people since returning to the White House — a fact often attributed to his insistence on being surrounded by unquestioning MAGA loyalists this time. But the firing of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem marked the departure of a high-level official from Trump's second administration.

Now, conservative Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) is calling for the firing of another Trump loyalist: White House policy adviser Stephen Miller.

During a Sunday morning, March 8 appearance on CNN, Tillis told host Jake Tapper that Miller is a "big problem" for the Trump Administration.

When Tapper asked Tillis if "Stephen Miller should go, he quickly responded, "Oh, of course, I do."

"He is not worried about substance," Tillis said of Miller. "He's more worried about form, but I also think that he has an outsized influence over the operations of the Cabinet. And I believe we've got qualified Cabinet members there that sometimes are doing less than what they want to, because of his direction and his outsized influence. He's a big problem in this administration. He has been from the beginning."

Miller, Tillis argued, is having a very negative influence on Trump's immigration policies.

The conservative senator told Tapper, "It gives me pause that you had people like Stephen Miller calling the shots. It was Stephen Miller who said it was the position of the United States that we should go after Greenland. And Stephen Miller, that's been repeatedly responsible for embarrassments for the president of the United States by acting too quickly speaking, first, and thinking later."

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Republican Sen. Thom Tillis (N.C.) has only ten more months left in office, and he didn't waste his opportunity to face off against Secretary Kristi Noem, who leads the Department of Homeland Security.

"What we've see is a disaster under your leadership," he told her, specifically naming President Donald Trump's deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, who reportedly set quotas for the department. Tillis complained that what Homeland Security should be doing is going after domestic terrorists like those who destroyed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

"Maybe we'll have time for you to respond, but I'm giving you a performance evaluation," he exclaimed, interrupting her efforts to comment.

"You failed at FEMA," he continued, citing funding allocated for North Carolina and how slow the department has been to release the money. Those funds are being held up by her, he said.

"I'm gonna give you time to answer it under penalty of perjury so we can get an answer," Tillis said.

He went on to cite the federal law that created the Homeland Security department, saying, "You're violating the law, either knowingly or unknowingly," by not distributing funding approved by Congress for FEMA.

He then pivoted to talk about how important it is to have the backs of law enforcement and that it means making sure law enforcement is protected but also held accountable when they do something wrong. What has happened in Minneapolis, he argued, has been wrong and a complete failure.

"Now secretary, I read your book last week," Tillis continued, mentioning the passage where Noem admits to shooting a puppy. "I train dogs. You are a farmer. You should know better."

Tillis noted that a 14-month-old dog isn't the kind of dog that is expected to be perfectly trained. He described it as a kind of "teenager" and not the kind of animal that is taken on a hunting trip.

"Then you have the audacity to say it's a leadership lesson," Tillis shouted at her for shooting the dog.

"Those are bad decisions made in the heat of the moment. Not unlike what happened in Minneapolis," he said, tying the two incidents together.

Tillis went on to question why DHS can't admit that it made horrible mistakes in Minneapolis, do the proper investigations and hold those responsible accountable.

He then asked who Tom Homan worked for, DHS or Trump, and she said he works for the president. He said the reason for that is that Trump clearly saw what a horrible failure she was at her job and had to bring Homan in to clean up the mess.

"That is why I call for your resignation," he closed, continuing to demand answers from her office. He said further that he wouldn't allow a single nominee to go through the Senate until she responds to his questions.

President Donald Trump's obsession with ending mail-in voting, even for those who are sick or serving in the military, has several Republicans at odds with him, according to The Hill, and the brewing conflict could further sink the SAVE America Act.

Trump has pushed hard for Republicans in Congress to pass the bill, which would require proof of citizenship for individuals registering to vote and a photo ID at polling places, based on his long-debunked claims that undocumented immigrants are committing widespread voter fraud. While it was able to pass in the House, the SAVE Act has stalled out in the Senate due to the filibuster, and now, some of its other provisions are causing a stir among Republicans.

At Trump's behest, the SAVE Act would also eliminate mail-in voting or absentee voting, even for those serving overseas, living out-of-state or dealing with an illness. The president has long claimed that voting by mail, which was more widely embraced by Democrats in 2020, is another source of fraud, despite providing no evidence to support the idea. According to a Tuesday report from The Hill, this provision has gone down poorly with several Republicans in states where these voting methods are widely popular.

The provisions in the bill to tackle mail-in voting were reportedly added in a "last-minute push" from Trump, and have left a number of GOP lawmakers "p——ed off," to the point where the bill might not have enough votes even if the filibuster rules are changed.

"Republicans from rural states are concerned that eliminating mail-in balloting for people unless they have strong excuses like serious illness, disability, military duty or travel will hurt GOP-leaning voters in remote areas who then would be forced to travel long distances to vote," The Hill explained.

Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, to notable critics of Trump, have already pledged to vote against the SAVE Act, while sources also indicated to The Hill that votes from Sens. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and John Curtis of Utah are in doubt.

"I’m a no because we don’t have a plan," Tillis said. "There’s no path for success. I was a no on the talking filibuster path, and this one is going to produce the same result."

One anonymous Republican told the outlet that Trump's anti-mail-in voting push was "problematic."

“I think it’s problematic because in some of these states, 60 or 70 percent of people vote by mail," the lawmaker said. "You don’t want to disenfranchise them. Some states have really encouraged it over the years."

Unlike former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) — who expressed her disappointment with President Donald Trump by leaving Congress altogether in early January — Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) plans to serve out the rest of his term. But Tillis is equally frustrated with the Republican Party, and he is among the many GOP lawmakers who decided against seeking reelection in the 2026 midterms.

Tillis isn't a full-fledged Never Trumper; he tried to work with the second Trump Administration. But he is now speaking out against Trump's policies frequently. And in an opinion column published on February 9, the New York Times' Frank Bruni observes that Tillis is having a lot of fun "going rogue."

"There's going rogue, and then there's going rogue with a thesaurus in one hand and a movie glossary in the other," the columnist writes. "Tillis seems intent on making his complaints about the Trump Administration's errors and overreach as memorable as possible. He also seems to be having a blast. There he was on CNBC's 'Squawk Box' on Wednesday morning, mischief in his voice as he called the Justice Department's investigation of Jerome Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve Board, 'frivolous,' 'vindictive' and 'trumped-up.' And there he was on Politico's 'The Conversation' the week before that, his eyes twinkling as he mused about the bafflingly low profile and dubious utility of Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence…. He's sassing. He's smiling."

Bruni adds, "The liberation of a conscience does wonders for a man."

Tillis, Bruni argues, embodies a conservative Republican who is frustrated with Trumpism and is experiencing "partial liberation" by speaking out.

"Tillis, 65, is no profile in unfettered courage," Bruni says. "He's in the final year of his second term and not running for reelection, so he needn't worry about some ultra-MAGA hellion taking him on in a primary and getting Trump's endorsement. He also bears some responsibility for all the damage the Trump Administration has done. He voted to confirm (Homeland Security Secretary Kristi) Noem, Gabbard, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., (FBI Director) Kash Patel and, most notoriously, (Defense Secretary) Pete Hegseth, whose bid to become defense secretary Tillis reportedly tried to scuttle until Trump made the magnitude of his displeasure with that clear. But over recent weeks, Tillis has reconnected with a past version of himself — the spirited maverick who found common cause with Democrats and emphasized common sense over strident partisanship…. I've heard some political observers speculate that Tillis is selfishly looking ahead to a post-Trump era when Republicans who raised alarms about the president's policies and conduct will be rewarded for that or at least judged more kindly by history."

Bruni continues, "Maybe so. But Tillis will certainly have to weather ample ugliness from the MAGA faithful in the meantime. Just ask Mitt Romney, Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger. So I choose to compliment him. To thank him. And to hope that his example encourages some of the toadies, flunkies and bootlickers in the halls of Congress to rethink their sycophancy."

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) lost it with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem during a Tuesday hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, and one reporter thinks he knows why.

Tillis ripped Noem for shooting a puppy, failing to allocate disaster funds and obstructing justice. But, according to The New Republic's Greg Sargent, a letter might provide an important clue about what really motivated Tillis' attack.

The Homeland Security Inspector General wrote a letter saying that leaders under Noem "systematically obstructed" his inquiries, including a "specific pending criminal investigation."

“Does anybody have any idea how bad it has to be for the OIG in this agency to come out and do this publicly?" asked Tillis during the hearing. “That is stonewalling, that’s a failure of leadership, and that is why I’ve called for your resignation.”

The document, confirms quotes from the Wall Street Journal that Inspector General Joseph Cuffari, a Trump appointee, "attempted to access a database controlled by DHS, but was blocked from it unless he revealed details of the investigation to individuals who do not have a need to know, and who may be related somehow to the allegations or individuals under investigation.”

The letter posted by Sargent details 11 instances in which DHS leaders blocked the IG's investigations.

"In one instance, the inspector general said that Customs and Border Protection wouldn't allow his staff to access the database that has 'up-to-date data on CBP's border screening and admitting processes; OIG is unable to independently review data or conduct comprehensive risk analysis,'" the claims said of an incident in May 2025.

TSA denied the inspector general access to look at its Secure Flight System database. It means they couldn't do "risk analysis." Ultimately, they turned over some "data extracts," but the IG said it couldn't validate if they were real.

These weren't the only times CBP, TSA or ICE refused to allow oversight.

"One other key thing: The DHS's inspector general identifies multiple instances in which DHS is restricting access to information related to ICE and CBP, making it impossible for the IG to examine data/procedures. That's crying out for more scrutiny," wrote Sargent.

Another letter sent to Congress in February complained that DHS refused to address “significant” findings about airport security checkpoints that it told Noem about in a classified briefing.

Noem has been criticized over the past year for turning her DHS role into a kind of year-long cosplay photo-op, while ignoring actual homeland security.