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Thom Tillis fails at ultimate dodge when asked to defend Trump's wild claim

On Thursday, Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) found himself squirming to respond to a wildly inaccurate claim about the state he represents made by President Donald Trump the previous evening. During a campaign rally for MAGA Senate candidate Michael Whatley, the president declared that North Carolina is “one of the most violent” states in the country.

According to Trump, the state’s fortunes had soured under the leadership of Whatley’s opponent, former Democratic Governor Roy Cooper. “Nobody used to think of North Carolina as a dangerous state, criminally dangerous,” said Trump. “It was apple pie. And now it's one of the most violent and one of the worst in the whole nation.”

The following day, Spectrum News asked Tillis what he thought of the president’s claim. Tillis dodged rather than criticizing Trump’s statement, saying only, “The president should probably take a look at the top 10 states for danger and look at who's governing it."

Spectrum provided that list, according to the FBI’s most recent crime data, noting that North Carolina is nowhere near the top, running near the middle at 21. In fact, the top ten were Alaska, New Mexico, Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Kansas, California, Colorado, Montana, and Missouri. And per Tillis’s advice, a look at the governing parties in this state indeed complicates Trump’s assertions that Democratic leadership drives up crime. The list is topped by Alaska, which has a Republican governor and two Republican senators. A total of six of the top ten are entirely Republican led, while only three are helmed by Democrats. Kansas has a Democratic governor but two Republican senators. What’s more, while violent crime is among Trump’s most frequent talking points, Spectrum notes that “the FBI also says violent crime nationally saw its biggest decline from ‘24-'25 in its history of tracking.”

Tillis was also asked whether he thought it was appropriate for Attorney General Todd Blanche to participate in Trump’s campaign events, as he did in North Carolina. It has long been the practice that Department of Justice officials would remain distanced from politics, but Trump’s relationship with the DOJ has repeatedly broken down such barriers. On this question again, Tillis dodged, saying, "I'm not going to speak on Blanche."

Interestingly enough, while Tillis was unwilling to directly contradict Trump’s claim that the cities of North Carolina are “blood-soaked killing fields,” Blanche himself did so just before the president took the stage. “North Carolina is ground zero for exactly what is working,” Blanche said. “Communities are safer.”

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'It failed': Irate GOP senator wants to 'choke' someone over Trump tariffs

On Monday, Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) didn’t hold back when asked about President Donald Trump’s tariff regime. He’s not just “concerned” – he’s looking for throats to “choke.”

“We've got 71 days, and right now we don't have a positive message to sell farm country, and we haven't since Liberation Day last year, which is why I was concerned,” Tills told reporters, referring to the barrage of tariffs Trump levied against countries around the world early in his second term. “That's exactly why I asked whose throat I got to choke if Liberation Day failed last year, and it failed. And that person is Howard Lutnick, and these people that are micromanaging this economy need to figure that out.”

A decades-long ally of Trump, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick is considered the chief architect of the president’s tariff policies, arguing that the approach will reshore manufacturing and increase national revenue. As Tillis suggests, these claims haven’t panned out. Not only have manufacturing jobs plunged since Trump’s much-touted “Liberation Day,” but the economy has suffered in general as the Supreme Court ultimately declared most of the tariffs illegal. The government was forced to refund the tariffs collected back to companies, and Lutnick’s son has since faced accusations that he has been profiting handsomely as his hedge fund buys up the rights to tariff refunds.

Tillis’s frustration comes on the heels of Trump’s decision to slap Canada with a new battery of tariffs, effectively launching a trade war. According to reports, in the days leading up to the new tariff announcement, Lutnick had expressed dissatisfaction with the trade deal the two countries were negotiating until talks broke down on Friday.

The Senator also voiced his skepticism on the administration’s approach to another matter, the CLARITY Act, which seeks to strengthen the crypto market and is currently up for debate in Congress. According to Semafor Congressional Bureau Chief Burgess Everett, Tillis “says it’s on trajectory to fail next month.” In Tillis’s estimation, “If there's no interest in the White House in trying to bridge the gap on the ethics language, it is going to fail.”

Opponents to the act say it weakens investor protections, opens the potential for money laundering, and lacks protections against insider trading. While Trump has argued that aspects of the CLARITY ACT should be passed, he has complained about proposed aspects of it that would block his family from profiting off it. According to Tillis, Trump’s demand that such language be stripped from the bill will likely mean its doom.

What’s more, as Tillis noted, there is growing concern among Republicans that with the midterms just around the corner, Trump’s economic chaos could mean disaster for the GOP majority. Recent polling shows that most voters believe that the Democrats are better at handling the economy than Republicans — a dramatic shift from pre-Trump perceptions.

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Pete Hegseth’s low-IQ culture war is putting America at risk

Republican Senator Thom Tillis, former Senate Armed Services Committee member, has accused Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth of mismanaging the Pentagon, and is recommending Trump fire him. Tillis wrote on X that Hegseth is “intimidated by competence” and “retreats to ginning up culture wars instead of soberly attending to the vital work of our national defense and the health and well-being of our fighting force.”

‘Ginning up culture wars’ to detract from malfeasance describes the entire Trump administration. It also captures how Fox News manipulates 38% of the country to vote against their own interests. Climate change? Corruption? Measles? These illegals are stealing from you.

After forcing credentialled journalists out of the Pentagon last year, Hegseth introduced a new right-wing press corps to replace them. He also started placing online influencers, aka political commentators, in civilian roles to keep his low IQ culture wars brewing. These influencers have been assigned as either “special government employees” or “highly qualified experts” who use social media to deflect from Hegseth’s mistakes, attack critics, and promote Hegseth’s favored viewpoints.

Using federal tax dollars for propaganda is illegal

Although the DOD has refused to answer questions about payment arrangements for Hegseth’s influencers, it is a logical inference that they are being paid with taxpayer funds. Republican Air Force veteran Adam Kinzinger noted as much, posting that it appears the Pentagon “is using your tax dollars to hire influencers on X to put out partisan talking points.”

Using federal tax dollars to pay for political commentary has long been illegal. Section 718 of the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act explicitly prohibits spending federally appropriated tax dollars on political propaganda: “No part of any appropriation contained in this or any other Act shall be used directly or indirectly, including by private contractor, for publicity or propaganda purposes within the United States not heretofore authorized by Congress.” This restriction blocks three separate categories of impermissible communications, including those that “fail to clearly identify the federal agency as the source or sponsor of the content.” Hegseth’s propagandists did not reveal that they were working for the federal government; that took some sleuthing by journalists at the Washington Post and the Bulwark.

All government agencies are legally required to be transparent about the origin of their communications under FTC Disclosure Rules as well. Under federal law, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) requires social media influencers to clearly and conspicuously disclose any financial relationships or sponsorships they may have. Failing to disclose when social media content is paid for violates consumer protection laws and amounts to deception.

Although it sounds quaint by now to point out yet another way this administration is breaking federal law, paying influencers to disseminate false or skewed information is covert propaganda that assaults the principle of an informed electorate. It is also the hallmark of an autocratic regime.

The Nazi ideology of Hegseth’s troll

In his excellent Substack post, Surviving in a pit of vipers, Robert Tracinski notes that one of Hegseth’s main influencers, Kurt Schlichter, is “pretty much a straight-up fascist.” ‘Pretty much’ is Tracinski being cautious. Schlichter advocates online for using the law to “force Democrats into political submission” and to “imprison dissenters.” Schlichter calls blue state liberals “evangelical Marxists” whom “red state conservatives” must force “by any means necessary” to be “like us,” with “no quarter and no compromise.”

“No quarter,” coming from a retired Army colonel with 620,000 X followers literally means killing adversaries. In war, showing “no quarter” has been an international war crime since 1907. In peace, applying it to silence different political perspectives is blood-curdling.

Schlichter also advocates penalizing “barren, non-familial lifestyles” and banning people in those lifestyles from political participation altogether. He also advocates “nationalizing big tech and academia” in order to “mandate conservatism as their operational ideology.” Schlichter wants to weaponize these institutions to enforce far-right political viewpoints nationwide. Between 1933 and 1945, Hitler similarly eliminated political opposition and forced the German population to align with Nazi ideology.

Hegseth’s reflexive lies put Americans in danger

The dangers of federal propaganda are obvious and the history is bleak, but Hitler didn’t invent state-forced ideology. The founders’ original goal behind the First Amendment was protecting Americans from forced ‘state’ ideology. They would flip in their graves to see this administration rule by propaganda, disseminated by right wing media, Hegseth’s trolls, and Trump and Elon Musk’s own for-profit social media platforms. It’s as if Trump 2.0 is a division of Fox News.

Governing by falsehoods is dangerous in any context, but lying about military operations puts American lives in danger. Hegseth’s lies downplaying Iranian attacks on U.S. assets in the Persian Gulf, for example, disrupted the distribution of food and supplies for the long-suffering troops on the USS Abraham Lincoln. Trump’s lies aren’t helping the war either. Last week he published an AI video falsely depicting the destruction of Iran’s strategic oil terminal, Kharg Island, signaling his cognitive impairment to Iran.

Hegseth seems to have transferred his Fox News propaganda manual to the Pentagon. In March, he called reports that Iran was disrupting oil shipments through the Straight of Hormuz “patently ridiculous” even as satellite imagery proved the reports. He deflected on evidence that the U.S. bombed a school and killed 175 children. He claims the U.S. “never targets civilians” after killing over 200 civilians on small boats in the Caribbean on mere suspicion that they were “narcoterrorists,” and after bombing an Iranian wedding hall with highly precise, guided munitions. And who can forget Hegseth’s early claim of complete and total “obliteration” of Iran’s nuclear capacity after last year’s bombing campaign?

He was lying then and he is lying now, and his culture war trolls are spreading his false propaganda.

Tillis, and a growing chorus Republican critics, are spot on. Hegseth is dangerous. According to Trump, he knows more about war than the generals do, why does he even need a Secretary of War?

Sabrina Haake is a political analyst and 25+ year federal trial attorney specializing in 1st and 14th A defense. She writes the free Substack, The Haake Take.

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'Not even a chance' Trump’s 2 major priorities will get my vote: scorned GOP lawmaker

Thursday brings a consequential day for the Republican agenda, as lawmakers on Capitol Hill gather for a marathon voting session that could bring GOP priorities into conflict with those of President Donald Trump. Judging by a pre-vote statement from one senator scorned by Trump, the president faces an uphill battle.

One of the most discussed votes involves the long-hindered effort to pass an immigration and border control budget reconciliation bill, which has been a thorn in the side of Republicans for several months. While it finally appeared likely to pass in the run-up to the Memorial Day recess, the sudden announcement that Trump would create a “slush fund” to pay convicted J6 criminals stalled the bill, with outraged Republicans saying they would not advance it unless the fund was killed. While the fund has since hit a number of major setbacks, it has not technically been ended once and for all. Now, many lawmakers are pushing for an amendment to the reconciliation that would pass it only on the condition that the slush fund is fully banned.

When asked by CNN correspondent Manu Raju about the matter, Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) shared his thoughts in no uncertain terms.

“Even the AG has said that [the fund] is done, so I don’t know why we don’t just codify it so that we don’t have the Democrats raising the speculation that it could come back at some point,” said Tillis, referring to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s recent assertion that the fund was ended, a claim that Trump quickly contradicted.

On Wednesday, it was also announced that the president would seek Blanche’s confirmation to the position permanently, an appointment that has drawn skepticism from across the political spectrum over concerns that the role will be weaponized by Blanche, who is Trump’s former personal attorney.

“The key to Todd or anybody getting through the judiciary committee would be being pretty tight on January the 6th. They better not have said for one minute that the people who beat up police officers were righteous people. You come even close to saying that you don’t even have a [chance] of getting my vote,” said Tillis. The Senator has frequently bumped heads with Trump, recently declaring that the president’s nominee for Director of National Intelligence doesn’t have a “prayer” of getting confirmed. Tillis has also called for his fellow Republicans to speak out against the White House, prompting Trump to call him a “nitpicker.”

When it was pointed out that Trump and Blanche had made opposing statements about the fund, Tillis wasn’t having it.

“The right hand and the left hand need to figure out what the h—— they’re doing,” he declared. “If it’s dead then we should be able to codify that and be done with it.”

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Trump 'surprised' by sudden Republican revolt

On Thursday, reports indicated that President Donald Trump was “surprised” by a Wednesday-night Republican revolt, which blocked and delayed the confirmation of acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. Republican senators who spearheaded the move say they did so because Blanche and the White House have yet to formally kill the anti-weaponization fund that many have decried as a “slush fund” for Trump’s allies.

AS MSNOW reports, “Late Wednesday night, the Senate Judiciary Committee postponed Thursday’s vote to advance Blanche’s nomination after it became clear Republicans didn’t have the votes, with GOP Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina withholding their support.” The resisting senators say they won’t allow the confirmation until the slush fund is officially ended, which could delay the vote until September or even beyond as the Senate’s summer recess is fast approaching and the White House has been reluctant to kill the fund altogether.

“The skepticism surrounding Blanche has centered on the settlement between the IRS and Trump’s DOJ,” MSNOW elaborated. “The agreement created a $1.776 billion fund for individuals who claimed they were the target of weaponization and it granted Trump, his businesses, his family members and others immunity from IRS investigations — two provisions that sparked bipartisan pushback.”

According to MSNOW, “The White House, for its part, has seemed surprised by the opposition. Blanche has spent weeks meeting with senators, and earlier Wednesday, Trump suggested the confirmation was all but assured. ‘All I can say is Todd Blanche is outstanding, and I thought it was pretty routine because he’s so good,’ Trump said. ‘He just wouldn’t find a better person.’”

Blanche previously worked as Trump’s personal lawyer, which some argue should disqualify him from attorney general as it raises questions of conflict of interest and who Blanche would actually serve: Trump or the American people. Recently, during a Senate Judicial Committee hearing, when asked if Blanche was Trump’s “friend,” the former declared, “I’m his lawyer,” before correcting himself and saying, “Was his lawyer.”

What’s more, Blanche has recently angered many who say he’s been dismissive of the concerns of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims, “with a group of survivors telling reporters outside of Cornyn’s office on Wednesday that Blanche had been ‘very condescending’ when he met with them — and even told them to ‘get to the point.’”

Trump may be surprised by opposition to Blanche, but MSNOW reports that “the warning signs in the Senate have been building for weeks. Cornyn and Tillis have repeatedly said the anti-weaponization fund must be declared dead in writing and the audit immunity must be narrowed.” What’s more, other GOP lawmakers have their concerns. As Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) said earlier in the week, “I have been waiting to see the outcome of the hearing on the anti-weaponization fund and the IRS issues. I’ve been following closely.”

The president has his own theories on why Republicans are bucking his demand, saying, “Maybe John Cornyn’s upset with me because I didn’t endorse him.” This was in reference to Trump’s endorsement of Cornyn’s recent primary challenger in Texas, Ken Paxton, who ultimately won the election.

But Cornyn has dismissed that narrative, saying, “I think that’s a convenient excuse for not cooperating with the Judiciary Committee’s appropriate role in confirmations.”

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Trump’s DOJ meddling threw him under the bus 'he himself was driving'

A series of President Donald Trump’s latest attempts to “meddle” in the Department of Justice have backfired, not only torpedoing his own cases, but causing major problems for his administration. This is according to New York Times legal analyst Alan Feuer, who wrote on Monday how, immediately upon returning to office, Trump “muscled his way into the driver’s seat at the Justice Department, leaving tread marks on its time-honored independence from the White House by demanding, and sometimes directing, investigations into his enemies. But his tight grip on the steering wheel has often threatened to lead the department off a cliff.”

As Feuer explains, the past week has offered perfect examples of how Trump’s attempts to weaponize the DOJ have blown up in his face. Trump’s meddling “imperiled one criminal case, set the stage for sanctions in a second and gummed up the chances that his pick for attorney general will be confirmed by the Senate.”

Feuer says that Trump’s latest batch of DOJ problems began last week, when court documents in the case against former FBI Director James Comey — who is accused of threatening Trump’s assassination by posting a photo of seashells spelling out “86-47” — revealed that the president had orchestrated a plot with the Secret Service to track Comey’s phone in a way that was “legally questionable.” Trump had been following the effort to surveil Comey from Air Force One, and wanted to use the Secret Service agents’ notes in a media appearance later that night.

“The request for the notes was a shocking breach of the distance that most presidents have kept from the day-to-day oversight of criminal investigations and indicated the intensity of Mr. Trump’s personal involvement in the pursuit of Mr. Comey, one of his most reviled political adversaries,” writes Feuer. “But his insistence on interfering with the case could come back to haunt him. After all, Mr. Comey’s lawyers pointed to the episode as evidence that the Justice Department had indicted him — on charges of making threats against the president — only as an act of retribution. If that claim is proven true, it would result in the case being dismissed.”

Trump’s meddling may have also sunk his case against former Olympian David Hearn, who is accused of vandalizing the Reflecting Pool during the renovation debacle earlier in the summer. On Friday, however, the case fell apart “in a spectacular fashion” when U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro — an avid Trump loyalist — “in a court filing, suddenly acknowledged that new information from Mr. Trump’s Interior Department had made her realize that shoddy construction, not anything that Mr. Hearn had done, caused the problems with the pool’s lining.”

“But even that confession did not stop Mr. Trump from doubling down on the vandalism narrative,” writes Feuer. “On Saturday morning, he posted a message on social media saying that he disagreed entirely with Ms. Pirro, a veteran prosecutor and a friend of his for more than 40 years. ‘I don’t know what she was thinking?’ Mr. Trump wrote. While Mr. Hearn's lawyers have not disclosed what they might do next, the case’s collapse gives them an opening to argue that the president’s stubborn statements about the matter suggest the prosecution was vexatious, frivolous or brought in bad faith.”

What’s more, explains Feuer, “The president’s inability to keep his hands to himself also affected another important bit of business at the Justice Department: the effort to confirm Todd Blanche, Mr. Trump’s former personal lawyer, as attorney general.”

By last week, Blanche seemed to have removed the key obstacle to his appointment: appeasing Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and Thom Tillis (R-NC), who were blocking his confirmation due to his unwillingness to commit to ending Trump’s “slush fund” in writing. But according to Feuer, “As the weekend neared, the president seemed to throw Mr. Blanche under the bus that he himself was driving, issuing a series of confusing and contradictory messages.”

Trump suddenly announced that he would withdraw Blanche’s nomination for confirmation and wait until the two lame duck senators left office, repeating his support for creating the fund, which Blanche had just claimed was dead. The next day, he threatened to revive the fund if Blanche wasn’t confirmed. Tillis was “baffled and dispirited” by all of this, saying, “It’s unfortunate that Todd Blanche, who I consider qualified for the job, will not be confirmed because of this reversal."

While by Sunday, there appeared to have been a breakthrough that will allow Blanche’s confirmation, owing to what he described as “good faith discussions” with senators, “as of Monday morning, Mr. Trump had not yet weighed in on the plan,” which could very well still be torpedoed by the president’s meddling.

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Trump may have just exposed himself to 'grounds for impeachment'

On Friday, President Donald Trump posted a Truth Social message that some commentators say may have just handed Democrats the “grounds for impeachment” they’ve been looking for should they take back a Congressional majority in the midterms.

As Michael Tomasky of the New Republic explains, “It all has to do with the slush fund … the result of a settlement in a mind-bending legal proceeding in which Trump sued himself: That is, the president of the United States sued the Internal Revenue Service, seeking $10 billion.” In May, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche — who happened to be Trump’s former personal lawyer — settled the suit by creating a $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund for the benefit of Trump loyalists, including J6 insurrectionists, while granting Trump, his family members and his companies immunity from prosecution for any tax-related crimes.

But outcry from both the public and Congress forced the administration to backpedal, and Blanche assured lawmakers that the fund would be canceled. He said he would put that in writing but failed to do so, and as a result, Republican Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and Thom Tillis (R-NC) are refusing to vote for his confirmation as attorney general.

At this point, Trump said that he would withdraw Blanche’s nomination for confirmation until Cornyn and Tillis — both of whom are lame duck Senators — leave office in January. As Tomasky explains, “What Trump is saying here is obvious. The slush fund and probably especially the immunity are far more important to him than Blanche is.”

“This matter has now jumped to the top of my list of grounds for impeachment,” Tomasky declared. Trump installed his personal lawyer to preside over a lawsuit in which the president is on both sides, resulting in a nearly $2 billion slush fund and immunity from tax crimes, then he admitted openly that the fund and immunity are more important to him than confirming his attorney general. The holdout Republican Senators have been very clear: if Blanche would commit to ending the fund and immunity in writing, he would be swiftly confirmed. But Trump won’t allow that.

Other commentators have noted the blatant corruption. According to former US attorney Barb McQuade, “Trump would rather pull Blanche’s nomination for AG than allow him to commit in writing that Trump’s IRS deal is off. The immunity Blanche granted to Trump from IRS audits is a windfall that some experts estimate is worth $100 million in taxpayer funds for Trump.”

Based on Trump’s inadvertent admission, “it’s hard to say how many articles of impeachment the Democratic House might come up with,” writes Tomasky, noting that the “biggest challenge will be deciding which high crimes and misdemeanors not to pursue. There’ve been dozens, hundreds, and they just can’t plausibly bring an indictment of 100-plus counts. They’re going to have to keep it to some number that the public can digest and buy into. But the slush fund and immunity grant sure look like count number one to me.”

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Republicans break with Trump over 'final straw'

On Thursday, following a war resolutions vote that saw an unusual number of Republicans break rank and side with Democrats in an attempt to end the conflict with Iran, an expert from a leading think tank asserted that the issue may be “ending” the presidency of President Donald Trump once and for all. While the vote failed due to a single Democratic defector, Brookings Institution Fellow Jessica Riedl said the Republican defections were telling.

“We may be witnessing the Iran war (and gas prices) as a final straw essentially ending Trump's presidency,” posted Riedl, who served as Chief Economist for former Republican Senator Rob Portman. “Most lame duck presidents see their own party usually move on around this time (see Bush with Katrina). It seems like Iran is where the dam finally broke with Trump.”

The resolution – which would have directed Trump to withdraw U.S. forces from the war – was passed by the House in July in a 214-208 vote, with four Republican lawmakers backing it. Then on Thursday, writes the Hill, “Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) on Thursday voted for the war powers resolution for the first time, joining GOP Sens. Susan Collins (ME), Lisa Murkowski (AK) and Rand Paul (KY), who have voted for previous resolutions directing Trump to end the war.” The effort was defeated after “centrist Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), an ardent supporter of Israel, was the only Democrat to vote against it.”

“Tillis said the conflict has dragged on for too long without congressional authorization and argued it has become a serious political liability for GOP candidates because of its impact on gas, diesel and fertilizer prices,” reports the Hill. “We’re reaching a point to where we just need answers. We got to know what success looks like,” said Tillis, adding that there has been a “consistently downward-trending negative reaction” from the public since the first strikes against Iran in February. “We don’t know how long it’s going to go,” he continued. “So, we’re afraid it could be a forever war. It’s a war that’s obviously hurting people economically. Why are we doing this? What is the goal?” According to the Hill, “Polls show support for the war dropping among Republicans. A CNN poll conducted by SSRS of 1,206 U.S. adults nationwide this month found that support among self-identified Republicans has dropped by more than 10 percentage points since March.”

While experts like Riedl see the Republican defections as a growing sign of Trump’s decline, the fact that the broader party voted to continue the war has not gone unnoticed, which is an unpopular stance considering the looming midterms. As Republican strategist Rina Shah noted, “Most Americans want this war ended. Congressional Republicans just voted to keep it anyway.”

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George Conway thinks he knows who Trump's 'incompetent personal advisor' is

On Friday, Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) posted the assertion that some “incompetent personal advisor” had convinced President Donald Trump he should continue pursuing his controversial “slush fund.” Commentators have been guessing the identity of said advisor ever since, and many have drawn the same conclusion: it was Trump himself.

“The President made it clear today that the so-called Anti Weaponization Fund is still alive, which is exactly why we are attempting to formally end it,” posted Tillis. “While I never disagreed that the Biden Administration pursued a number of vindictive prosecutions related to January 6, the criminals who assaulted police officers and defiled our nation’s Capitol are not ‘great American patriots’ who are ‘victims of government abuse.’ Anyone who attacked law enforcement should still be in prison, not getting a check from the federal government.”

Tillis wrote this in response to an earlier post from Trump, in which the president claimed “there has never been a group of people treated so badly in our Nation’s history,” referring to January 6 insurrectionists and saying they should be "paid back.” The Senator made it clear that he does not agree, writing, “Senator Cornyn and I have been working with Acting AG Todd Blanche to end the Anti Weaponization Fund, and he has been forthright, thoughtful and patient. It’s a shame his confirmation has hit a snag only because an incompetent personal advisor to the President refuses to amend the bogus settlement.”

The internet lit up with guesses as to who the advisor could be.

Attorney and Democratic congressional candidate George Conway, who was formerly married to one of Trump’s top first-term advisors, mused suggestively, “Is there a prediction market play on who the ‘incompetent personal advisor’ is?” One response captured the gist of his implication, guessing, “John Barron” — the name many suspect Trump uses as a pseudonym for calling into C-SPAN.

“JFC,” declared a popular political account. “The ‘incompetent personal advisor’ is TRUMP!”

"Incompetent personal advisor,” noted another. “President Trump famously almost never takes advice.”

“Is this ‘advisor’ physically inside of Trump's head right now?” wondered another. “Answer: Yes, it's Trump.”

“ITS THE PRESIDENT HIMSELF DIPSH–,” said another still.

Others have asserted that it could be “anyone from that garbage administration,” someone else in the GOP, or Boris Epshteyn, Trump’s personal senior counsel since 2025, whose team handled Trump’s IRS lawsuit. Many also took issue with Tillis, suggesting he was using the euphemism to avoid giving Trump his due blame.

“You’ve already pissed off Trump,” said one. “Why are you still deflecting his responsibility here?”

“Lmao dude,” said another. “YOU ARE DIRECTLY RESPONDING TO THE PRESIDENT HERE. THIS IS *HIS* POSITION. Why are you giving him the benefit of ‘bad advice?’ My god you are pathetic. “

“FFS,” one asked, “Why must you still genuflect to the cult leader?”

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'Why on earth?' GOP senator stunned by Don Jr.’s 'bad' gift from Putin ally

Donald Trump Jr. and his wife, Bettina Anderson, are furious over a ProPublica report alleging that their wedding in the Bahamas in May was partially funded by Umar Kremlev — a Russian oligarch with close ties to President Vladimir Putin. The article's allegations are resulting in strong criticism of President Donald Trump's son, and some of the criticism is coming from the right: conservative Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina).

On X, the Washington Sun's Igor Bobic reports, "Tillis rips Don Jr. for accepting gifts from a Russian oligarch, calling it 'beyond bad."

Tillis, according to Bobic, said of the president's son, "Don Jr. is worth somewhere between 300 million and 400 million dollars. Unless he has a cash flow problem, why on earth would you accept money from a Russian oligarch who's actually gone on delegation meetings with Xi Jinping in China?"

Anderson pushed back against ProPublica's reporting in a lengthy post on Instagram, writing, "Don and I got married privately on Friday, surrounded ONLY by our family. It was intimate, deeply personal, and one of the most beautiful days of our lives. The weekend that followed had actually been planned well in advance as a fun weekend with friends. It was never intended to be our wedding weekend."

Anderson also wrote, "Our dear friend Umar very generously hosted two incredible nights of celebrations for us AFTER our wedding."

In her post, Anderson wrote that there is "NO CONSPIRACY, NO MYSTERY" with Kremlev's involvement in her wedding to Don Jr. in the Bahamas.

Although Tillis isn't a full-fledged Never Trumper like attorney George Conway, The Lincoln Project's Rick Wilson or MS NOW host Joe Scarborough, he has been willing to criticize President Donald Trump at times. Tillis, fearing that he would not survive a GOP primary challenge, decided against seeking reelection in the 2026 midterms. And Democratic strategists are feeling optimistic about their nominee in the race to fill Tillis' seat: former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, who has been performing well in polls.

Bobic's tweet on Tillis' comments is receiving a lot of discussion on X, formerly Twitter.

X user David Oppenheim wrote, "Because he's a Trump. First Rule: Never Pay For Anything."

Another X user, Levi Fishman, posted, "I think we know that Don Jr. never turns down help from the Russians. Especially later in the summer."

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Tillis 'thrilled' over Trump calling him a loser: 'Makes me qualified to be DHS secretary'

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.

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