A Republican senator is openly breaking ranks with President Donald Trump.
On Wednesday, Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina stepped onto the Senate floor with a warning about Trump’s latest actions. His message was aimed at what he sees as growing damage to both the economy and America’s place in the world.
“This isn’t cranky Thom,” Tillis told fellow senators. “This is Thom trying to explain a very serious subject.”
He was reacting to Trump’s recent behavior, including talk of taking Greenland from Denmark. Tillis said the idea makes no sense at all.
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“The thought of the United States taking a position that we would take Greenland is absurd,” he said. “Whoever told the president that this is a viable path? It doesn’t make sense.”
The speech carried extra weight because Tillis is a Republican and is retiring at the end of the year. With no election ahead of him, he has grown more vocal about Trump’s decisions.
This was not his first warning. Earlier this month, Tillis also pushed back strongly against Trump’s decision to pardon nearly all people convicted in connection with the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
On the Senate floor, he said flatly, “We let bad people go,” arguing that those who led the crowd and hurt officers should still be in prison. Tillis warned that Trump’s broad clemency sends the message that attacking democracy comes with no serious consequences, a choice he said he just “can’t agree” with, even as a Republican.
On Wednesday, Tillis also addressed the Trump administration’s criminal probe into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. Trump allies have accused Powell of misleading Congress about a $2.5 billion renovation of the Fed’s headquarters.
Powell has denied the claims and said the investigation is political pressure meant to push the Fed into lowering interest rates.
Tillis dismissed the case against Powell, calling a conviction “virtually impossible.” He added that financial markets stayed steady only because lawmakers spoke up.
“One of the reasons financial markets didn’t react in a negative way,” Tillis said, “is because many people stood up in Congress and said this seems to be crossing a line.”
That line, he warned, involves using political power to intimidate an independent institution.
Tillis has even threatened to block future Federal Reserve nominees until the investigation is settled, a rare move that highlights rising concern inside Trump’s own party.
Featured image via YouTube screengrab
