WASHINGTON — Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina says in a new book that his deciding vote to confirm Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in January 2025 is the “biggest regret of my career” and that he also “should’ve stopped” Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from becoming Health and Human Services secretary in the early days of President Donald Trump’s second term, writing in “How to Lose Friends and Antagonize Presidents,” to be published Tuesday.
Tillis writes that he delayed the Hegseth confirmation vote late into the evening on Jan. 24, 2025 while consulting the White House, people who had worked with Hegseth and Hegseth himself. He says he could not corroborate the worst allegations about Hegseth’s management style, treatment of women and excessive drinking, which Hegseth denied, and voted to confirm. His vote made the tally 50-50, and Vice President JD Vance broke the tie.
The senator defends not wanting to be “the lone voice in the wilderness” against Trump’s nominees but writes that at least 30 GOP colleagues have expressed reservations in private about the president’s actions while praising him publicly. He also predicts a “bloodbath” for Republicans in November’s midterm elections and warns that executive overreach “comes back to bite the majority party in the ass.”
Tillis, who announced in June 2025 he would not seek reelection after what he calls a “breaking point” over Trump’s sweeping tax and spending cuts package and its Medicaid cuts, writes that Trump replied “I am! DJT” when Tillis texted him to find a replacement.