President Donald Trump raged against Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) after the senator voted “no” on a procedural vote for the “big, beautiful bill,” even going so far as to say he is meeting with potential primary challengers “over the coming weeks.”
In back-to-back posts on Truth Social, Trump laid out his case against Tillis, alternating from policy disagreements on the debt ceiling and wind energy to accusing the North Carolina senator of abandoning the tobacco industry and of being “MISSING IN ACTION” during Hurricane Helene recovery efforts in the Tar Heel State.
“Looks like Senator Thom Tillis, as usual, wants to tell the Nation that he’s giving them a 68% Tax Increase, as opposed to the Biggest Tax Cut in American History! At the same time, he is unable to understand the importance of a Debt Extension, which Republicans gave to the Democrats just prior to the November 5th Election, because of its significance, and how important it was for the future of the U.S.A.,” the president began.
Trump continued, “Tillis is also willing to throw the very important Tobacco Industry in North Carolina, ‘out the window,’ for reasons nobody seems to understand. He loves China made windmills that will cost a fortune, ruin the landscape, and produce the most expensive Energy on Earth. I can’t believe that the Great People of North Carolina, a State that I love and won all three times, and a State that I just brought back with money, blood, sweat, and tears, from the recent tragic floods, when Sleepy Joe Biden let them DROWN, right up until the end of that Administration, without doing anything — I was given an A+ Rating for the job we did in bringing it back, and Tillis, despite being a Republican, was MISSING IN ACTION — North Carolina will not allow one of their Senators to GRANDSTAND in order to get some publicity for himself, for a possible, but very difficult Re-Election.”
Trump then suggested “numerous” potential primary challengers for Tillis’s seat, which he has held since 2015, have already spoken to the president and he will be meeting with them soon.
“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!” Trump concluded.
Shortly after Trump’s rebuke of Tillis, the Senate passed a key hurdle in getting the “big, beautiful bill” to the president’s desk for signing before July 4.
After hours of negotiations on and off the Senate floor, the upper chamber voted 51-49 to advance the tax bill to an eventual floor debate, but not until after the entire 940-page text is read aloud.
Some GOP holdouts flipped their vote to “yes” after extracting last-minute concessions from Senate leadership, but not Tillis, who ultimately maintained his stance on the bill that he sees as containing “devastating” changes to Medicaid.
Despite the primary threat from Trump, Tillis has dominated the Republican primaries in his past two election cycles.
SENATE ADVANCES TRUMP TAX BILL AFTER LAST-MINUTE NEGOTIATIONS WITH HOLDOUTS
In 2020, he received just over 78% of the vote, while the closest challenger, Paul Wright, a former judge, got just 7.6%.
Over a decade ago, in 2014, Tillis received nearly 100,000 more votes than his closest primary challenger, Greg Bannon, with Tillis ultimately winning the primary with over 45% of the vote.
