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Tillis reveals ‘biggest regret of my career’ in new book on Trump 2.0
Confirmed
In Short: Tillis also predicts a 'bloodbath' for Republicans in the upcoming midterm elections, saying that Republicans who agreed to go along with the early demands of the Trump team, believing that failing to do so would mean the end of their political career, now see that things have gone way too far.
North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis has revealed in his new book, 'How to Lose Friends and Antagonize Presidents,' that his vote to confirm Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is the 'biggest regret of my career.'
Tillis, who will not seek reelection, details his decision-making process in the book, explaining that he pushed the confirmation vote late into the evening on January 24, 2025, after weighing his options and talking to the White House, people who had worked with Hegseth, and Hegseth himself.
He ultimately decided to support Hegseth's confirmation, bringing the total to 50-50, with Vice President JD Vance breaking the tie. Tillis writes that he couldn't corroborate the worst allegations against Hegseth at the time.
In the book, Tillis criticizes several of Trump's initial Cabinet picks, including former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
Tillis mostly deflects full blame from Trump, saying, 'my beef is not with him, but the idiots he's got working for him.' He calls the president 'an amazing political talent,' but warns of a slippery slope toward authoritarianism and urges his colleagues to 'wake up' and push back on Trump more often, for their own political good.
Tillis's surprise announcement in June 2025 that he wouldn't be running for reelection came as he escalated criticism against Trump and his 'Big Beautiful Bill' of tax and spending cuts. Trump attacked Tillis on social media after the senator said he couldn't support the bill's cuts to Medicaid.
Tillis ends the book with a profanity-laced text he sent to the president in response to Trump's insults, writing, 'I care if you fail and right now we are failing.'
What this adds
Tillis's book marks the first time he has described his vote to confirm Hegseth as a mistake.
Tillis spent the most time scrutinizing Hegseth and called for the president to remove him in September over his personnel decisions.
What's confirmed
- "Republicans who agreed to go along with the early demands of the Trump team no matter how ridiculous they were, believing that failing to do so would mean the end of their political career, and who now see that things have gone way too far."
What's still developing
- He writes that he can count at least 30 of his GOP colleagues who have "expressed reservations (to put it mildly) about many of the president's actions in private. Then, when the reporters showed up with their cameras and microphones, they'd have nothing but nice things to say."
- Tillis, who announced last year that he would not run for reelection in a "breaking point" with the president on his sweeping tax and spending cuts package, is publishing the book in his final months in office.
- Tillis also predicts a "bloodbath" for Republicans in November's midterm elections. "All along, we've had multiple chances to get off the path and avoid the giant bronze monster chasing us down," he writes. The book is filled with cuss words and condemnations. He criticizes Trump's tariffs, the aggressive immigration raids that Tillis says were an effort to "intentionally sow disorder" and the Iran war, which he initially supported. He said the war can only end with a coalition of willing nations and if Trump gets "Pete Hegseth the hell out of the way."
- Left: : Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., attends the committee vote on President Donald Trump's nomination of Todd Blanche to be attorney general, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., Aug. 4, 2026.
- Executive overreach, he says, doesn't work and sooner or later, "comes back to bite the majority party in the ass." Tillis also predicts a "bloodbath" for Republicans in November's midterm elections.
- At the time, Hegseth had been accused of heavy drinking and domestic abuse, and Tillis was trying to corroborate those allegations.
- Ultimately, Tillis said he did not want to be the “lone voice in the wilderness” after a critical mass of GOP opposition failed to materialize, and he voted for all of Trump’s Cabinet nominees. (He was the deciding vote on Hegseth.) Almost two years later, and with his retirement a handful of weeks away, Tillis says the conduct of those Cabinet officials has proven his “gut” correct and that he should have helped torpedo their nominations.
- He’s spent the most time scrutinizing Hegseth and called for the president to remove him in September over his personnel decisions, but the book marks the first time Tillis has described his vote as a mistake.
- Vice President JD Vance asked that he vote for Hegseth as a “personal favor,” Tillis said, and tried to win him over with a Situation Room briefing and cordial phone call with Trump.
- Tillis, who is retiring after almost 12 years in the Senate, rarely takes a direct shot at the president in his book, choosing instead to fault advisers for the tumult of his second term.
- Tillis does, however, offer new insight into his most heated moments with the president, including a May text message bristling at Trump’s social media post calling him a nitpiker.
- “I still want to help but I don’t take this bulls*** from anyone, including you Mr. President,” he wrote.