Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., is again calling on President Donald Trump to fire some of his most senior officials. The retiring senator says the move would help both the president and the Republican Party.
Speaking on a SiriusXM show Wednesday, Tillis said Trump should let go of three senior officials who he said “present no cost-benefit”: White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“They’re costing us more than they are benefiting us,” Tillis said. “I’ve fired my best friend, and I would fire them if I were the president.”
Tillis compared Trump to a company CEO. He argued that if the president fired his worst-performing officials, things would improve for him in the second half of his second term.
With Republicans bracing for a tough midterm, Tillis said his calls are less about defending Trump and more about defending the party. “I want him to have a good legacy,” he said.
Recent polls show Trump at a record-low approval rating, and nonpartisan forecasters show Democrats with narrow leads in enough races to retake the Senate.
Tillis has criticized administration officials throughout the year and has often accused them of giving the president bad advice. His criticism of Hegseth has been especially sharp. In September he called on Trump to fire the Defense Secretary over what he called Hegseth’s “inept management” of the military. Those comments came two days after Army Secretary Dan Driscoll resigned following months of reported clashes with Hegseth.
At the time, Tillis wrote on X that Hegseth “is intimidated by competence and retreats to ginning up culture wars” instead of focusing on national defense and the well-being of the troops. Later, Tillis told reporters Hegseth “needs to go,” whether through impeachment or, more quickly, by the president replacing him.
The criticism is notable because Tillis helped put Hegseth in the job. In January of last year, he cast a key vote to confirm Hegseth, who was approved 51-50. Tillis voted for all of Trump’s Cabinet nominees, but he now calls that vote his “biggest regret.”
Tillis has tried to walk a tightrope, saying he wants the president to succeed while blaming his advisers and subordinates. In his book, Tillis writes that at least 30 Republican senators have privately voiced reservations about many of Trump’s actions, but most won’t speak up publicly for fear of being targeted by the president.
Tillis is not seeking reelection, which gives him room to say things many of his colleagues will not. Whether the White House listens is another matter.