Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) unloaded on President Donald Trump in a series of profanity-laced private text messages that are now spilling into public view as the retiring Republican prepares to release a tell-all book about his battles with the president and MAGA world.
The fiery exchanges, revealed in reporting on Tillis' forthcoming memoir, How to Lose Friends and Antagonize Presidents, show the North Carolina senator speaking to Trump in remarkably confrontational terms.
"I still want to help but I don't take this bullshit from anyone, including you Mr. President," Tillis wrote in a May 22 message, according to the texts published by POLITICO.
"Save that shit for the cowards who don't care if you fail," the retiring senator continued. "I care if you fail and right now we are failing."
In a June 6 message, the senator pushed back against the suggestion that Trump had threatened him with a Republican primary challenge.
"If you had ever threatened me directly with a primary, I would have immediately told you to fuck yourself, and I would have announced my retirement immediately," Tillis wrote in another stunning text.
"Save those threats and head games for cowards and fools," the outgoing lawmaker added.
Notably, POLITICO did not publish Trump's replies or the preceding messages that prompted Tillis' angry responses.
Tillis announced in June 2025 that he would not seek reelection after opposing Trump's sweeping reconciliation legislation. The president blasted the senator in a Truth Social post as a "talker and complainer, NOT A DOER!" and publicly floated supporting a primary challenger.
Tillis raised eyebrows when he held up Trump's nomination of Kevin Warsh to lead the Federal Reserve, refusing to support him until the Department of Justice ended its investigation into then-Fed Chair Jerome Powell. Tillis dropped his blockade after the probe was closed in April.
Republican Michael Whatley, the former Republican National Committee chairman endorsed by Trump, is running to replace Tillis in North Carolina's open Senate seat against former Gov. Roy Cooper (D).