U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., in an elevator at the U.S. Capitol on June 30, 2025 in Washington, D.C., as Republican Party leaders urged President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Act” to be passed through Congress and on his desk before the July 4 holiday. (Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON – Sure, Sen. Thom Tillis has become the most observable, outspoken Republican critic of the second Trump administration. But don’t mistake Tillis for a maverick.
The North Carolina senator is what he has long been – a steadfast supporter of the Republican Party, known as an establishment Republican. Conservative Republican on fiscal issues, usually pragmatic on other issues. Chamber of Commerce Republican. Bush-Romney Republican.
“Thom Tillis was and is best understood not as a moderate but as a pragmatist,” said Christopher Cooper, author of the book “Anatomy of a Purple State”, which examines North Carolina politics.
“When he speaks, when he acts and when he is silent, everything is calculated to achieve the goals he has in mind,” said Cooper, a political science professor at Western Carolina University. “Without a chance of re-election, his speech is simply less expensive.”
Tillis will step down after two terms in the Senate. Over the past nine months, he has shown a more explicit side to the public.
‘The only rational explanation I’ve seen’ for his recent outspokenness, said veteran North Carolina GOP strategist Carter Wren, “is that he is now free from all politics.”
Tillis did not agree to be interviewed for this story.
Tillis versus mention
Tillis’ last, most public explosion occurred on March 3, when set it on fire soon-to-be former Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem in: Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing. Tillis voted last year with 51 other Republicans and seven Democrats in favor to confirm Noem as secretary.
This time he talked about the “disaster President Biden has left behind” and the “failed DHS.” However, he said he is critical of Noem because of the way he runs the agency.
Throughout the confrontation with the secretary, Tillis maintained an enraged tone. “What we are seeing under your leadership is a disaster, Ms. Noem,” he protested. “I was disappointed every time.”
He threatened to put unrelated U.S. Senate business on hold if he wasn’t satisfied.
He cited a letter from her department’s Office of Inspector General that noted several times that she had obstructed the agency from continuing investigations into her department.
He recalled how, in January, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents shot and killed two protesters in Minnesota, both U.S. citizens. “Why can’t we just say we made a mistake?” – Tillis asked. Noem did not apologize during his hearing for the shooting.
Tillis raised a dog, Noem, which she shot because he was untrainable, which later became eminent she wrote about it it’s in the 2024 book when he was governor of South Dakota.
“You decided to kill this dog because you didn’t spend enough time training it. And then you have the nerve to write a book and say it’s a leadership lesson in making hard choices?” – Tillis asked in disbelief.
The willingness to distance himself from party orthodoxy was characteristic of Tillis. The unrelenting irritation was something recent.
Republican establishment
Michael Bitzer, professor of politics and history at Catawba College in Salisbury, North Carolina, described the state’s Republicans this way: Two-thirds are robust Trump loyalists. The remaining one-third is established GOP.
That means their roots often come from “Chamber of Commerce, mainstream, party-oriented Republicanism, not Trump’s personality,” he said.
These Republicans still typically lead the U.S. Senate Republican Conference, led by senators such as Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota and former GOP leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
They have a long history of conservatism that tends towards a practical approach that gets the job done.
They cooperated with Democrats in 2001 and 2002 to pass President George W. Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” education reform. In 2002, they gained enough Democratic support authorize Bush to invade Iraq. They helped the party nominate Arizona Sen. John McCain for president in 2008 and former Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah four years later.
When Tillis first ran for the Senate in 2014, he won the nomination Romney’s support who appeared in the candidate’s television advertisement. Ex New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush he campaigned for Tillis. These weren’t Trump fans.
Tillis and Trump
When in 2016, a few weeks before the presidential election, the “Access Hollywood” tape came to delicate, in which Republican Party candidate Donald Trump makes vulgar remarks about women, Tillis was critical.
“As a proud husband and father of a daughter, I find Donald Trump’s comments indefensible,” he added. Tillis wrote on Twitter at the time.
Still, Tillis has a history of making steadfast Republicans elated.
In 2011, it sparked controversywhen, as speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives, he said in a video: “We have to find a way to divide and conquer people on assistance.”
His examples: “We have to show respect for this woman who has cerebral palsy and in her condition she has no choice, that she needs help and that we should help.”
But Tillis added: “We need to get these people to look down on people who choose to fall into a state that makes them dependent on the government and at some point say, ‘You’re on your own. We may end up taking care of these children, but we won’t take care of you.'”
In 2014 he told NBC News he regretted using the words “divide and conquer.”
As a U.S. senator, Tillis voted with Republicans most of the time. He was ranked 35th out of 100 senators in the nonpartisan GovTrack rankings “the result of ideology”, starting with the most conservative senators.
Twelve Republicans scored lower (just below Tillis was Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., Trump’s nominee to replace Noem).
Breaking with Trump
The most public and most noticeable interruptions occurred in the last year or so.
Tillis was sharply critical Ed Martin, Trump’s nominee to be U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. Martin attracted controversy due to his ties to those who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Trump ultimately withdrew from the nomination.
The most high-profile schism occurred in June, when Tillis expressed concern about Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Act,” signed into law on July 4. Then vote against final version.
It was and still is the most essential domestic achievement of the president’s second term. Extends 2017 tax cuts and adds recent ones. But it also cuts $1 trillion from Medicaid, the federal health insurance program that helps cover costs for lower-income people.
Tillis they called Trump’s health care advisers “amateurs” and described how he conducted extensive research to assess the impact on his condition. He thought it was potentially devastating.
“So what do I tell 663,000 people in two or three years when President Trump breaks his promise by pushing them off Medicaid because there’s no more funding?” – he asked his colleagues.
Trump was furious. “Tillis is a talker and complainer, NOT A DOER!” – he wrote on his website Truth Social.
The day after the speech, Tillis said yes will not run for re-election.
He was free. His decision made political sense.
“It looked like he was free from restraints,” Wrenn said.
Next up: Federal Reserve
Tillis will soon be back in the spotlight, ace he promised he would hold on Trump’s nomination of Kevin Warsh as Federal Reserve chairman.
While he considers Warsh a qualified person, Tillis added that the Justice Department “continues to investigate Chairman Jerome Powell based on committee testimony that no reasonable person could conclude had criminal intent.”
Investigation relates to Powell’s comments about Fed building renovation spending.
“My position has not changed: I will oppose the confirmation of any Federal Reserve nominee, including for chairman, until the Department of Justice’s investigation into Chairman Powell has been fully and transparently resolved,” Tillis said.
Last week, a federal judge blocked justice subpoenas for Powell, stating that “the government has presented substantially no evidence to suspect Chairman Powell of wrongdoing.”
Tillis still persists.
“This ruling confirms how weak and frivolous the investigation into Chairman Powell is and is nothing more than a failed attack on the Fed’s independence,” he added. – said the senator in a statement.
“We all know how this ends, and the DCUS Office of the Attorney should save itself further embarrassment and move on. Appealing the verdict will only delay the confirmation of Kevin Warsh as the next Fed chairman.”
Trump is eager to replace Powell, believing Powell has been too reluctant to take steps to lower interest rates.
Classic Tillis
Warsh’s drama is Tillis’ latest vintage move, congressional experts say.
Tillis “is the essence of the Legislature. He had a very long career as a legislator, knew how to play the game and was deft at moving and changing positions when it suited him,” said Ross Baker, a political science professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey.
He also wanted people to remember that he was pragmatic and willing to be independent. Warsh provides one recent chance. The hearing in Noem brought another one.
The day after the Noem hearing, Trump fired her – the first person in his second-term government to be fired.
Tillis, Baker said, “wanted to leave a monument to himself that could mark the end of Kristi Noem’s career as secretary of homeland security.”
Finally he said, “Tillis is a good government guy.”
