Senator Thom Tillis told Donald Trump in a private text message that the president may have confused him with 'so many Republicans that you have threatened in the past', and that he would have told Trump to f*** himself had he ever been threatened personally.
The North Carolina Republican sent the message on 6 June 2026, one of two expletive-laden texts to the president that appear in his forthcoming book.
Politico's Playbook newsletter published screenshots of both on Thursday 1 October, five days before the book's release. Tillis, 66, is not seeking re-election and will leave the Senate when his term ends on 3 January 2027.
'Save Those Threats and Head Games for Cowards and Fools'
The June message disputed Trump's account of their falling-out. 'As I have said before, you NEVER threatened me with a primary challenge,' Tillis wrote. 'I get that you may have me confused with so many Republicans that you have threatened in the past, but NEVER me,' according to the screenshots obtained by Politico.
He went further. 'If you had ever threatened me directly with a primary, I would have immediately told you to f*** yourself, and I would have announced my retirement immediately. Save those threats and head games for cowards and fools,' the senator wrote.
Check out these leaked texts from Republican Thom Tillis to Donald Trump.
— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) October 2, 2026
The Republican Party is falling apart at the seams. pic.twitter.com/8nUHXV939z
The text came a day after Trump criticised Tillis while speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on 5 June, calling him a loser and 'just an angry man', according to a transcript.
Tillis had said he would oppose Todd Blanche's confirmation as attorney general unless Blanche publicly denounced the mob that stormed the US Capitol on 6 January 2021.
A Warning Sent on 22 May
The first message predates the Blanche dispute. On 22 May, after Trump called him ineffective and a nitpicker on Truth Social, Tillis wrote: 'I still want to help but I don't take this bulls**t from anyone, including you Mr. President. Save that s**t for the cowards who don't care if you fail. I care if you fail and right now we are failing.'
The two texts trace a relationship that had been deteriorating for more than a year. Tillis announced on 29 June 2025 that he would not seek re-election, after opposing Trump's flagship tax and spending bill and facing a public threat from Trump to support a primary challenger.
That history sits awkwardly alongside the June text. Although Trump publicly threatened in 2025 to back a challenger against Tillis, the senator's message insisted that Trump had never personally threatened him with a primary. He has since become an increasingly vocal Republican critic of the administration, alongside the retiring Texas senator John Cornyn.
Sycophants, Yes-Men and the 'Weirdos of the MAGA World'
The book is titled How to Lose Friends and Antagonize Presidents: The Trouble with Sycophants, Courage Outsourcing, and Partisan Groupthink, and its publisher describes it in similarly combative terms.
It promises an account of how the sycophants surrounding Trump, spineless Republican yes-men and yes-women, and the weirdos of the MAGA world cannot get out of their own way.
Tillis has also turned his criticism on his own party. He has argued, the Daily Beast reported, that too many elected officials are motivated by pure raw politics and do not care about the people they promised to represent on the campaign trail.
The book goes on sale on 6 October, and the two texts published so far suggest Tillis has chosen to put his private dealings with the president on the record.
