Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) sat down for an interview with Politico where he seemed to gleefully celebrate the potential defeat of MAGA in the midterm elections that are coming up around the corner. Tillis, who is ending his time in public service, is going out with a bang by putting out a book that was specifically timed for pre-midterms publication and goes ballistic against President Donald Trump’s appointees and warns that the GOP is currently on the path to electoral ruin.
The book, “How to Lose Friends and Antagonize Presidents,” is being referred to as a profane, though candid and maddening memoir about Tillis’ journey from the trailer park to his last months serving in the Senate. It’s a book that is sprinkled with profanity and candid because he reveals some of the conversations he had with Trump and his advisers.
During the interview, Tillis made it clear that he’s not really all that concerned about the results of the midterms. He said he’s happy to be on his way out of the fray and is keeping a countdown clock on his phone to “whoop-ass,” essentially what he believes will be the defeat of the GOP during the upcoming elections.
According to Politico, it is also clear that Tillis still has some political aspirations because he was careful to state repeatedly in his new book that he’s not a Never Trumper, treating the president carefully in the tome he penned, largely because he wants to play a part in rebuilding the GOP after President Trump’s second term ends.
When Tillis was asked about Republicans losing the House and Senate, he stated he believes the GOP can hang on to the Senate. “No, I still believe we can hold on to the Senate. I think it’s gonna be tight. My guess is we may lose a race we expected to win, but maybe win a race we expected to lose. But I could see us finishing with 50 or 51 members. And that’d be my preference, my goodness,” he said.
“Because we’ve got to do everything we can to help this administration, and maybe have people that can recognize the value of getting some bipartisan work done. There will be no chance for bipartisan work, I believe, if Congress is controlled by Democrats. Here’s what’s going to happen: The Democrats are going to do exactly what I said the Republicans were going to do. They’re gonna read it as a mandate to be against everything Trump does, versus trying to find a way to work together,” he added.
Later, Tillis was asked if he thought Trump had been good for the Republican Party. “I thought he was good in Trump 1, but in Trump 2, I think he’s lost sight. What he’s done is he’s created a coalition that, in my opinion, will not stay with Republicans once we go back to traditional Republican platform priorities. I think a lot of the elements of the populism that Trump created to expand a base that made him successful running for president, I don’t think that stays with the party long term,” he answered.
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Tillis also said that Democrats aren’t going to win this current election cycle. Republicans were going to lose it. In other words, he is saying that MAGA is going to cost Republicans the election. People aren’t going to vote for Democrats because they want their policies, they’re just not going to vote for the GOP because of MAGA, according to the North Carolina Republican. He also said that Trump should fire his advisers.
“I’ll just say it directly: Is it reassuring that you basically can tell yourself he’s not Mussolini, he’s just a bullshit artist, we’re gonna be just fine? Is that basically the mentality?” the interviewer asked Tillis. “No, actually, in the first quarter, I was hoping that it was just a little bit of bulls–t that we had to work through. But when the bulls–t becomes policy, that’s problematic — you get this November, this thing that’s going to happen 20 days from now, which I have on my countdown clock as ‘Whoop Ass,'” he said.
When asked if he would vote for Trump again if he could, Tillis replied, “I probably would. That’s assuming he does learn a lesson versus double down on these results. He’s reflective. And, you know, he was a Democrat when I was running the conference here to get us into a majority, so go back and touch on some of those roots and figure out a way to find common ground, Mr. President. That’s gonna drive some of my far-right people crazy, but at the end of the day, you gotta make lemonade.”
Outgoing RINO Senator @ThomTillis gleefully shows a Politico reporter the countdown clock on his phone for what he says is guaranteed Republican defeat in the upcoming midtermS:
"This thing that's going to happen 20 days from now that I have on my countdown clock as whoop ass." pic.twitter.com/ibJBDb8xxN
— Steve Cortes (@SteveCortes) October 20, 2026
Featured Image: screenshot from embedded video