President Donald Trump launched a blistering attack Friday against retiring Sen. Thom Tillis after the North Carolina Republican sharply criticized the administration’s newly created “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” exposing growing tensions within the GOP over the direction of the party and the use of taxpayer money tied to politically charged legal battles.
In a lengthy Truth Social post, Trump accused Tillis of weakness, disloyalty, and abandoning his reelection ambitions after losing the president’s support.
“People don’t remember that Thom Tillis, the weak and ineffective Senator from the Great State of North Carolina,” Trump wrote, before noting that he had won the state multiple times, including in Republican primaries.
Trump claimed Tillis “didn’t have the courage to fight it out in the Senate” and alleged the senator only announced his retirement after learning the president would not endorse him for another campaign.
“When I told him that I would not, under any circumstances, endorse him for another run, too much work and drama,” Trump wrote, “he immediately quit the race and publicly announced that he was going to ‘retire.’”
The president continued by calling Tillis a “Nitpicker” and accusing him of siding against both the Republican Party and Trump himself on issues the president said “didn’t matter.” Trump also mocked media portrayals of Tillis as courageous for challenging him politically.
“He wasn’t brave,” Trump wrote. “HE WAS A QUITTER!”
The sharp exchange comes after Tillis publicly condemned the administration’s $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” which was established as part of a settlement tied to Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS.
According to the administration, the fund is intended to create “a systematic process to hear and redress claims of others who suffered weaponization and lawfare.”
Tillis, however, has emerged as one of the program’s most vocal Republican critics, arguing that taxpayer money could ultimately flow to individuals convicted of serious crimes.
“It will 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,” Tillis said.
“That’s absurd,” the senator 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.”
“These people don’t deserve restitution. Many of them deserve to be in prison,” Tillis continued.
The dispute has widened broader cracks inside the Republican conference as lawmakers increasingly clash over legal controversies, executive power, and spending priorities at a time when foreign conflicts and economic uncertainty are already placing pressure on Washington.
Tillis had previously withheld support for Kevin Warsh, Trump’s nominee to lead the Federal Reserve, until the Justice Department dropped its criminal investigation into outgoing Fed Chair Jerome Powell. After the investigation was ended, Tillis voted in favor of Warsh, calling him an “outstanding nominee.”
But frustration inside the Senate GOP appears to extend beyond Tillis alone.
According to Punchbowl News reporter Jake Sherman, a closed-door meeting between Republican senators and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche reportedly devolved into what was described as a “sh*tshow,” prompting Senate Majority Leader John Thune to send senators home afterward.
“THE SENATE will go home until June, leaving the reconciliation bill unfinished,” Sherman reported Thursday. “All because of the DOJ weaponization fund.”
The standoff highlights mounting friction inside the Republican Party as lawmakers wrestle with balancing loyalty to Trump, concerns over government power, and the political fallout from increasingly divisive battles both at home and abroad. Even as Republicans remain broadly united against Democratic policies, internal disputes over spending, investigations, and political retaliation are beginning to consume attention at a moment when many voters are already anxious about inflation, instability, and the costs of escalating conflicts overseas.