Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., had a quick comeback on Monday’s episode of “The View” after the show’s hosts warned that President Donald Trump might doxx him, just as the president recently did with Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark.
The North Carolina Republican has been making the media rounds to promote his new book, “How to Lose Friends and Antagonize Presidents: The Trouble with Sycophants, Courage Outsourcing, and Partisan Groupthink.”
Co-host Sunny Hostin opened the conversation by pointing to the senator’s decision to leave Capitol Hill.
“Last year, you announced you’re retiring from the Senate after this term following a very public fallout with the president over his Big Beautiful Bill,” Hostin said.
Hostin went on to note that the book contains private exchanges between Tillis and the president. Those exchanges came after Trump called Tillis a “loser” and took credit for forcing him out of the Senate.
According to Hostin, Tillis claims in the book that he wrote to the president denying Trump’s version of events. In that message, Tillis said, “I would have immediately told you to go blank yourself,” and added, “I don’t take this BS from anyone, including you, Mr. President.”
“Did you hear back from him?” Hostin asked.
Tillis said the two have kept in touch.
“Actually, we’ve talked or texted back and forth several times since then,” the senator said.
That answer prompted a joke from co-host Ana Navarro.
“He’s gonna give your phone away after this!” Navarro quipped.
Co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin agreed with Navarro’s assessment.
Tillis, however, was ready with a response of his own.
“With all due respect I have his number, too,” Tillis shot back.
Hostin then pressed the senator on whether he feared retaliation from the White House over the contents of his book.
“Are you concerned about the president coming after you after he has someone read this book to him?” Hostin asked.
“Not at all,” Tillis replied.
The studio audience responded with cheers and applause for Hostin’s cheeky framing of the question.
Tillis then turned the discussion toward the larger argument of his book, warning that both parties face consequences when they ignore their own excesses.
“Look, we could dedicate a whole show to me, the book ends of overreach, and vindictive prosecutions, etc,” Tillis said.
The retiring senator argued that partisans who overlook their own side’s missteps are putting their party at risk.
“For people to forget about their party’s overreach puts that party in peril in the next election. That’s my whole point,” Tillis said.
He went on to make the case that most Americans are not found on the political extremes.
“Most of the people in this country live between the 35 yard lines in politics,” Tillis said. “And the party that figures that out first is going to have a structural majority because the rest of us are tired of the garbage.”
The exchange marked the latest public moment in the ongoing rift between Tillis and the president, which began with their very public fallout over the Big Beautiful Bill and led to the senator’s announcement that he would not seek another term.
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