Thom Tillis has four months left in public life, and he has decided to spend them demolishing every bridge still standing. He released private texts he sent the president. He wrote a book. He’s out promoting it on a tour that reads less like a victory lap than a confession, and the confession amounts to this: he regrets most of what he did in office.
Let’s dispose of the martyrdom first. Nobody pushed Tillis out. He quit. Trump posted one item on Truth Social about backing a primary challenger — one — and that is the entire basis for the exile narrative he’s now selling at retail. Senators have survived considerably worse than a social media post.
The real problem is that he’s trying to work both sides of the street at once, and the seams are showing badly. He’s disavowing his own votes, starting with Pete Hegseth — a nomination he first tried to sink and then supported. You voted yes. That vote belongs to you. Spare the country the hand-wringing now that there’s an Army secretary resignation to point at.
He published his texts with the president, plainly calculated to embarrass him, and in the same stretch of interviews called Trump a political phenomenon who assembled a coalition nobody else could have built. Pick a position. The Republican base has had enough of him, and Democrats have no use for him either — they’ll book him through the book tour and forget his name by Christmas.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) THREATENS to DOXX President Trump’s phone number on The View if he releases his, like POTUS did over the weekend to Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR).
Sunny Hostin: “In the book, you include some private exchanges with the president after he called you a ‘loser’ and took credit for forcing you out of the Senate, actually. You claim to have written him denying his account and saying, ‘I would have immediately told you to go blank yourself’ and ‘I don’t take this BS from anyone, including you, Mr. President.’ Did you hear back from him?”
Thom Tillis: “Actually, we’ve talked or texted back and forth several times since then.”
Ana Navarro: “He’s gonna give your phone away after this!”
Thom Tillis: “With all due respect I have his number, too.”
Sunny Hostin: “Are you concerned about the president coming after you after he has someone read this book to him?”
Thom Tillis: “Not at all.”
— RedWave Press (@RedWavePress) October 5, 2026
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) SHOCKINGLY compliments POTUS for being an amazing political talent who brought together a truly incredible coalition of people to win.
The View’s Whoopi Goldberg: “I mean, you go after a number of you-know-who’s policies and his hiring choices. And I have to say, you kind of voted for a lot of these folks. And so you also call him out for being a snowflake. So have we. And yet you still say you support him and call him an amazing political talent. What am I missing?”
Thom Tillis: “The fact that he’s won two national elections. I mean, the fact of the matter is, he has a way of pulling together coalitions.”
“He’s got people that voted for him in North Carolina that you wouldn’t have voted for me under any circumstances. So he creates these coalitions. He resonates with people.”
“I think he’s a great political force. I’m hoping that we could do that for good.”
— RedWave Press (@RedWavePress) October 5, 2026
Sen. Thom Tillis on President Trump’s Cabinet:
— Pete Hegseth is “the biggest regret of my career.”
— Says he should have stopped RFK Jr. from becoming health secretary.
— Tulsi Gabbard won’t be challenging anyone “for president of her local Mensa chapter. ”
— Kristi Noem is a dog murderer
— Howard Lutnick quote is “nuttier than squirrel shit.”“I stand by all that.”
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) October 7, 2026
It’s sad to watch, and it is unmistakably a meltdown.
This is what happens when a man with an oversized ego doesn’t get his way. And the frustrating part is that Tillis has genuine political talent. He’s buried it under enough unforced errors that you’d never know, but it’s there, and he’s accomplished real things. What he isn’t is indispensable. He’s a solid contributor who convinced himself he was the franchise, and the game has continued without him just fine.
He got out over his skis. The wipeout is now in hardcover.
