President Donald Trump revealed in a late night Truth Social post that he’s planning to meet with people interested in running in the primary against incumbent North Carolina Republican Senator Thom Tillis, in response to Tillis’ decision to vote against Trump’s “One, Big, Beautiful Bill.”
Late Saturday night, he president posted on his social media platform, “Numerous people have come forward wanting to run in the Primary against ‘Senator Thom’ Tillis. 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!”
Tillis, who was first elected as senator in 2014, is up for re-election next year.
Trump had posted a rant railing against Tillis, as well as Democrats, earlier in the evening, arguing that Tillis was “unable to understand the importance of a Debt Extension.” He also accused Tillis of throwing the tobacco industry out the window, and supporting “China made windmills that will cost a fortune,” all to the detriment of his constituents.
Trump went on to accuse Tillis of being ”MISSING IN ACTION“ during the catastrophic floods that struck North Carolina late last year, while also getting a dig in at ”Sleepy Joe Biden” for letting the residents of western North Carolina drown. Tillis has previously been a supporter of Trump, appearing at one of his campaign stops in North Carolina during the 2020 election.
Earlier on Saturday, Tillis revealed in a statement that he would be voting against the president’s megabill, largely because of Trump’s proposed cuts to Medicaid.
The statement read, “I did my homework on behalf of North Carolinians, and I cannot support this bill in its current form. It would result in tens of billions of dollars in lost funding for North Carolina, including our hospitals and rural communities.”
”This will force the state to make painful decisions like eliminating Medicaid coverage for hundreds of thousands in the expansion population,” he continued, “and even reducing critical services for those in the traditional Medicaid population.”
Urging the Senate to adopt the House’s approach to Medicaid, Tillis said, “we can and must do better.”
Some of the changes to Medicaid were proposed by Republicans in an attempt to offset the cost of Trump’s tax cuts, which experts worry could add up to $4.5 trillion to the national debt over the next decade.
Other Republicans who took issue with the proposed changes include Senators Josh Hawley, Susan Collins, and Lisa Murkowski. Ultimately, Republican Senators voted to move forward with the bill, with all but Tillis and Kentucky Senator Rand Paul voting yes late Saturday to move forward with the bill.
While The White House initially said that the disagreements were “part of the process,” with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt telling the press that they expected the bill to make it to Trump’s desk for a signature by July 4, the president is clearly growing impatient.
Former Trump devotee Elon Musk reiterated his own opposition to the bill in its current form in a series of posts to X on Saturday, arguing that the bill “will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country!”
He also called the bill “utterly insane and destructive” and argued that raising the debt ceiling by a potential $5 trillion would run the risk of ”putting America in the fast lane to debt slavery!”
The post Trump Threatens to Primary GOP Senator Who Voted Against Megabill appeared first on The Daily Beast.
