Sen. Thom Tillis tells off Trump in spicy text message revealed in new book

National admin October 5, 2026 0 Comments

Sen. Thom Tillis tells off Trump in spicy text message revealed in new book

Good morning! It’s Danielle Battaglia with the latest edition of Under the Dome focused on the Trump administration.

Nothing quite wakes you up on a Friday morning (when I’m writing this) like a text message, published by Politico, referencing telling the president “to (expletive) yourself.”

Politico reported that Sen. Thom Tillis wrote to President Donald Trump on June 6: “As I have said before, you NEVER threatened me with a primary challenge. I get that you may have confused me with so many Republicans that you have threatened in the past, but NEVER me. If you had ever threatened me directly with a primary, I would have immediately told you to (expletive) yourself, and I would have announced my retirement immediately. Save those threats and head games for cowards and fools.”

I quickly confirmed with Tillis’ staff this text message is real.

It is.

Tillis sent this text message around the time a court settlement created the $1.776 billion fund earmarked for people who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to stop the election certification of Joe Biden as president.

Because of that, Tillis was vocal about his concern about moving forward with Trump’s nomination of Todd Blanche for attorney general. At the time the settlement was created, Blanche served as interim attorney general.

On June 5, Trump told reporters on Air Force One that Tillis was “a loser” for not supporting Blanche, The Hill reported.

“He didn’t run because I wouldn’t support him,” Trump said. “He’s just an angry man because he’s not going to be a senator any longer. He wasn’t respected in the Senate. He fought a lot of people. He was forced to leave the Senate because I wouldn’t support him, and he quit, so now he’s trying to make trouble by opposing anyone.”

Tillis announced to McClatchy in December 2024 that he planned to seek reelection to the Senate for a third term.

But in June 2025, he and Trump got into a public spat over how Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill would negatively affect North Carolina’s Medicaid recipients beginning in 2028. Tillis said he dropped out of the race that week so he could vote his conscience without his reelection bid weighing on him.

Leading up to Tillis dropping out, Trump posted online: “Numerous people have come forward wanting to run in the Primary against “Senator Thom” Tillis. I will be meeting with them over the coming weeks, looking for someone who will properly represent the Great People of North Carolina and, so importantly, the United States of America. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

Tillis texted Trump, then, to look for his replacement, and dropped out of the race.

And by the way, Tillis did eventually vote to confirm Blanche’s nomination after assurances that the $1.776 billion fund was dead.

The release this week of Tillis’ text messages to Politico weren’t a leak or an accident. Those messages will be featured in Tillis’ new book, “How to Lose Friends and Antagonize Presidents: The Trouble with Sycophants, Courage Outsourcing, and Partisan Groupthink,” which comes out Tuesday.

I’m not here to sell you the book, and I have not been given an early copy (I’m not grumpy about it or anything …). But many of you often ask me what’s going on inside Tillis’ head, and from reading the preview his publisher Harper Collins has released on its website, the book may provide some of that insight.