President Donald Trump has drawn a red line, and it’s a warning to Congress to not vote against him on the budget reconciliation package, vowing to primary Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., for voting against proceeding to debate on the Senate’s version of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
“Numerous people have come forward wanting to run in the primary against ‘Sen. Thom’ Tillis,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. “I 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.
“Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
The hits kept on coming Sunday from Trump.
“Thom Tillis has hurt the great people of North Carolina,” Trump wrote in another Truth Social post. “Even on the catastrophic flooding, nothing was done to help until I took office. Then a miracle took place!
“Tillis is a talker and complainer, not a doer! He’s even worse than Rand ‘Fauci’ Paul!”
In a Truth Social post earlier Saturday night, Trump blasted Tillis as a “grandstander” making a “big mistake” in siding with Democrats – “nasty people who actually hate our country” on voting against the bill in the Senate.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., remained dug in against the raising of the debt ceiling in the Senate’s reconciliation package like Tillis. President Trump argued in that post the debt ceiling has to remain in there because Democrats “won’t reciprocate on a debt extension.”
“Did Rand Paul vote ‘No’ again tonight?” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. “What’s wrong with this guy??? DJT.”
One of the staunch fiscal conservative opponents of the Senate reconciliation bill, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., avoided Trump’s ire by switching his vote to a yes.
“Tonight we saw a great victory in the Senate with the ‘Great, Big, Beautiful Bill,” but, it wouldn’t have happened without the fantastic work of Sen. Rick Scott, Sen. Mike Lee, Sen. Ron Johnson, and Sen. Cynthia Lummis,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post Saturday night.
“They, along with all of the other Republican patriots who voted for the bill, are people who truly love our country!”
Tillis’ primary argument against the Senate version versus the House version are the changes to Medicaid, which Republicans had long warned Democrats would make insolvent by foisting giveaways and undue costs on American taxpayers during the Obamacare era.
“The Senate should return to the House’s Medicaid approach,” Tillis wrote in a statement Saturday. “That plan includes commonsense reforms to address waste, fraud, and abuse, and implements work requirements for some able-bodied adults to ensure taxpayer-funded benefits are going to our most vulnerable neighbors.
“There is a lot for North Carolinians to love about the rest of the One Big Beautiful Bill, including extending the historic Trump Tax Cuts, increasing the child tax credit, providing historic funding for border security, and ending wasteful spending.
“We can and must accomplish this without hurting our rural communities and hospitals, and without jeopardizing access to care for hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians who need it the most.”
Tillis faces a difficult reelection campaign in North Carolina regardless of Trump’s backing or not. Trump won the state by 3.5 percentage points, but Democrats have used the state to chip away to GOP support in the Sun Belt.