Thom Tillis Defiantly Smacks Back at Trump’s Attacks, Says He’ll Have ‘A Lot of Fun’ During Last Months in Office

AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

President Donald Trump frequently lobs vicious attacks at his perceived political foes, even — or perhaps, especially — at those in his own party. But Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) had no problem dishing it right back at the president, firing off his own tweet defiantly declaring his intention to “have a lot of fun” during his last months in office.

Tillis has been increasingly outspoken during Trump’s second term, especially after announcing he would not run for re-election to the Senate seat he has held since 2014. Even before Trump finally endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton against incumbent Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) in the bitterly fought Texas Senate primary runoff, Tillis had blasted Trump for backing off from a reported initial plan to endorse Cornyn, calling it a mistake and bemoaning Republicans allowing this internecine election battle to continue to fester as “lazy and unstrategic.”

Lately, Trump and Tillis have publicly sparred over the president’s “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” which the Department of Justice announced last week it would create as part of an agreement to settle a lawsuit Trump, his sons, and the Trump Organization had filed against the IRS for leaking their tax returns.

It’s been a highly controversial move for multiple reasons and has been denounced as a “slush fund” by critics, including by some Republicans like Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who said it was “utterly stupid, morally wrong.” The main objections to the fun include the fact that Trump as president is now in the role of both the plaintiff in his lawsuit and in charge of the defendant government agencies, how the fund purports to allow distribution of funds without congressional approval, and January 6 rioters who were pardoned by Trump are seeking a share of the funds — even those who assaulted law enforcement officers.

Tillis has lambasted the “slush fund” as “stupid on stilts” during an interview with a local reporter, arguing that it was “absurd” that this fund would “invariably put us in a position where your taxpayers dollars and my taxpayer dollars could potentially compensate someone who assaulted a police officer, admitted their guilt, got convicted, got pardoned and now we are going to pay them for that.”

“The American people are going to reject this out of hand,” Tillis added. “When you take money from me to give to a purpose that I vehemently disagree with, that’s tyranny, and that’s what that account is.”

He repeated his “stupid on stilts” comment on CNN Thursday.

“These people don’t deserve restitution. Many of them deserve to be in prison,” he said, adding that pushing forward with this fund would hurt Republicans in November’s midterm elections.

“There’s not one positive thing that could be spun out of this between now and November,” Tillis said. “This is bad policy. It’s bad timing, and it’s bad politics.”

As expected, Trump was infuriated by Tillis’ criticism and unleashed on the senator in a Truth Social post Friday morning, calling him “weak and ineffective,” claiming he was a “QUITTER” who “didn’t have the courage” to run again for re-election, and accusing him of being a “Nitpicker” for “always fighting against the Republican Party, and ME, mostly on things that didn’t matter.”

“Now he can have all the fun he wants for a few months, with some of his RINO friends, screwing the Republican Party,” Trump concluded. “In the end it will only get bigger, and better, and stronger, than ever before!!!”

Tillis replied a few hours later with his own tweet, listing some of his objections to Trump’s polices as things his own advisors recommended against.

“Mr. President, completely agree about having a lot of fun over these next seven months,” wrote Tillis, continuing with his list of “stupid stuff” Trump was supporting against advice:

But nitpicking? Some of your advisors are telling you to support things like:

– Using billions of taxpayer dollars to compensate convicted felons and thugs who attacked police. (Ed Martin)
– Pushing 50-year mortgages and Elizabeth Warren’s housing bill over sound conservative housing policy. (Bill Pulte)
– Using taxpayer money to transform publicly traded companies into state-owned enterprises. (Howard Lutnick)
– Firing our very best generals and not holding Putin accountable for his systematic kidnapping, rape, torture, and murder of Ukrainian civilians. (Pete Hegseth)

If opposing these things makes me a RINO, then I gladly accept that nickname.

We need Republicans to do well in November, but the stupid stuff is killing our chances!

—

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!