An unbound Thom Tillis shows he can be a new force in the Senate | Opinion

U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis is an enigma.

At times, he has joined his fellow Senate Republicans in slavishly approving President Donald Trump’s agenda and his controversial nominees. At others, the two-term senator followed his conscience and refused to go along, despite the scorn of Trump’s MAGA followers and possible retribution from the president.

It was in that latter mode that Tillis joined only two other Republican senators in voting against Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.” He said he couldn’t support a law that likely will strip Medicaid coverage from hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians. It passed the Senate anyway after Vice President JD Vance broke a 50-50 tie. The next day, Tillis announced that he will not seek reelection in 2026.

Tillis’ show of independence and his decision not to seek another term have cleared the ambivalence that clouded his image. Now, free to speak his mind and vote his conscience, the 65-year-old senator is far from a lame duck. Over the next year, he could become a decisive force for sanity and decency in the closely split Senate.

How a liberated Tillis could be a refreshingly candid Senate presence came through in a late-August interview with Major Garrett, chief Washington correspondent for CBS News.

The extended interview, part of CBS’ “Takeout” program, took place at a restaurant on the banks of Lake Norman in Cornelius. A relaxed Tillis seemed no longer restrained by the Trump line as he discussed issues that included Russian President Vladimir Putin, tariffs, armed troops patrolling U.S. cities, gerrymandering and Trump’s advisers.

Tillis dismissed settling the Russia-Ukraine war by allowing Russia to keep the Ukrainian land it currently occupies, an idea favored by Trump.

The Russian president has allowed “systematic kidnap, rape, assassination and torture,” the senator told Garrett. “And anybody that thinks that that behavior should be rewarded by giving him land or giving him a graceful out, I think is misguided.”

Instead of compromises with Putin, Russia should get another round of heavy sanctions, Tillis said. He also suggested that Trump is being played by Putin: “How can anybody objectively look at what’s happening and conclude otherwise?”

Trump’s sending troops into Washington, D.C., and likely other cities, to supposedly fight crime is a mistake, he said.

“Do we honestly think that D.C. has the worst crime problem in the United States?” Tillis said. “It’s got a crime problem, but where do we go from here? Do we go to Gary, Indiana; Detroit? Go to Memphis, a red state. It’s got a crime problem. Where do we go?”

Texas, Missouri, and possibly other Republican-led states, followed Trump’s wish by redrawing congressional district maps in mid-decade to gain GOP House seats in 2026. Tillis thinks that’s a bad idea for two reasons. One, Republicans may spread their voters too thin and get upset in a blue wave election. And two, it’s not what true conservatives do.

“I don’t like the fact that now redistricting initiatives are occurring in large part because the White House told them to,” he said. “I mean, you can’t have it both ways, folks. You’re either a limited-government conservative where states make decisions in state houses or you’re not.”

Tillis also opposes Trump’s sweeping tariffs as inflationary. “At some point, I think we’ll start seeing an uptick. And my guess is it will be after the first part of the year,” he said.

Tillis criticized deportations that “shortcut” due process rights and said that proposals to eliminate or sharply reduce the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) are “just naive.”

Trump’s deep cuts in U.S. aid to poor countries are wrong and against U.S. long-term interests, Tillis said.

“We’ve got to cut them some slack, they’re struggling, their people are starving, they have health challenges. So we’re going to invest in them and give them a glimpse of what it’s like to be helped by western, exceptional democracy and hopefully inspire their future leaders to go in that direction,” he said. “On the one hand, it’s altruistic, it’s a good thing to do, it’s also strategically very important. The more people who have embraced democracy, the fewer people who would be adversaries.”

That’s Tillis unbound. Still a conservative, still a Trump supporter, but now a rare Republican senator willing to publicly disagree with the president.

North Carolina and the nation could have used this Tillis earlier, but it’s good to have him now.

Associate opinion editor Ned Barnett can be reached at 919-404-7583, or nbarnett@newsobserver.com

This story was originally published September 3, 2025 at 11:12 AM.