{"id":155176,"date":"2025-06-29T19:59:58","date_gmt":"2025-06-29T19:59:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/thom-tillis-wont-seek-re-election-after-clash-with-trump-over-big-beautiful-bill-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2025-06-29T19:59:58","modified_gmt":"2025-06-29T19:59:58","slug":"thom-tillis-wont-seek-re-election-after-clash-with-trump-over-big-beautiful-bill-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/thom-tillis-wont-seek-re-election-after-clash-with-trump-over-big-beautiful-bill-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Thom Tillis won\u2019t seek re-election after clash with Trump over \u2018big beautiful bill\u2019 – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

President insulted Republican senator and threatened to back his primary challenger after he opposed domestic bill
Thom Tillis announced on Sunday that he will not run for re-election to the US Senate next year, one day after the North Carolina Republican\u2019s vote against Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s signature piece of domestic legislation prompted the president to launch a barrage of threats and insults \u2013 as well as promise to support a primary challenger to defeat him in their party\u2019s 2026 primary.
\u201cIn Washington over the last few years, it\u2019s become increasingly evident that leaders who are willing to embrace bipartisanship, compromise, and demonstrate independent thinking are becoming an endangered species,\u201d Tillis said in a statement<\/a> sent to reporters.
He added: \u201cAs many of my colleagues have noticed over the last year, and at times even joked about, I haven\u2019t exactly been excited about running for another term.\u201d
Shortly after Tillis refused to support the massive package of tax and spending cuts, called the \u201cone big beautiful bill\u201d, in a procedural vote in the Senate<\/a> on Saturday, Trump attacked the senator on his social media platform, Truth Social.
The president accused Tillis of grandstanding \u201cin order to get some publicity for himself, for a possible, but very difficult re-election\u201d. He also wrote that Tillis is making a \u201cBIG MISTAKE for America, and the Wonderful People of North Carolina!\u201d
In a subsequent post on Truth Social, Trump threatened Tillis by saying he would meet with potential candidates to challenge him in a Republican primary in the battleground state.
\u201cNumerous people have come forward wanting to run\u201d against Tillis, Trump wrote Saturday night<\/a>. \u201cI will be meeting with them over the coming weeks, looking for someone who will properly represent the Great People of North Carolina and, so importantly, the United States of America.\u201d
Before Tillis announced his decision Sunday to retire from the Senate, Trump continued to attack him on social media, writing: \u201cTillis is a talker and complainer, NOT A DOER! He\u2019s even worse than Rand \u2018Fauci\u2019 Paul!\u201d
Tillis was one of two Senate Republicans<\/a>, along with Rand Paul of Kentucky, to vote against the bill championed by the president. Dr Anthony Fauci was the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases during Trump\u2019s first presidency, and once a key adviser on the Covid-19 pandemic whose support of lockdowns and vaccines made him a hate figure for Trump\u2019s base.
Trump\u2019s attacks came hours after Tillis said in a statement<\/a> that he \u201ccannot support\u201d the current form of the president\u2019s spending bill. He pointed to expected cuts to Medicaid that he said would \u201cresult in tens of billions of dollars in lost funding for North Carolina, including our hospitals and rural communities\u201d.
The retirement of Tillis could make it easier for Democrats to flip the seat in 2026, with some in the party hoping to encourage former governor Roy Cooper to enter the race.
A similar dynamic could be at play next year in Omaha, Nebraska, where the sitting Republican congressman and frequent Trump critic Don Bacon has reportedly decided<\/a> that he will not run for re-election to the House.
Trump has backed primary challenges against Republicans who clashed with him. Notably, he endorsed Harriet Hageman\u2019s successful push to unseat Wyoming\u2019s former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney, who served on a House congressional committee that investigated Trump supporters\u2019 deadly US Capitol attack after he lost the 2020 presidential election.
Trump\u2019s team also recently launched a group to unseat Kentucky congressman Thomas Massie, who opposed the US\u2019s 22 June strikes on Iran\u2019s nuclear sites. Massie also formed an alliance with the California Democratic congressman Ro Khanna to introduce a war powers resolution meant to \u201cprohibit involvement in Iran\u201d as well as Trump\u2019s \u201cbig, beautiful bill\u201d.
Chris LaCivita, senior Trump political adviser, has confirmed that he and Tony Fabrizio, another Trump adviser, would run an anti-Massie Super political action committee (Pac).
Trump\u2019s criticism of Tillis came as the Senate voted 51-49 in favor of passing a motion to advance the budget bill. It must now clear a formal Senate vote and be returned to the lower House for approval \u2013 which Trump wants done before the July 4th holiday.
The legislation is a stuffed hamper of Republican priorities \u2013 making tax breaks from Trump\u2019s first presidency permanent, no taxes on tips, cutbacks to Medicaid, food stamps and green energy investments, and a commitment for an additional $350bn in spending on national security and a massive increase in funding for deportations.<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President insulted Republican senator and threatened to back his primary challenger after he opposed domestic billThom Tillis announced on Sunday that he will not run for re-election to the US Senate next year, one day after the North Carolina Republican\u2019s vote against Donald Trump\u2019s signature piece of domestic legislation prompted the president to launch a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":155177,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-155176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}