Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said Sunday that two of President Trump’s top advisers, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, “are not taking care of the president’s legacy” on immigration and border security.
“You’ve heard me talk about Stephen Miller, you know my opinion about Kristi Noem,” Tillis told Ed O’Keefe on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.” “These are people that don’t look around corners and are not taking care of this president’s legacy.”
Tillis, who is not running for reelection in 2026, said he believed that Republicans could hold onto its majority in the Senate. But he admitted that it could be more difficult for Republicans to keep a majority in the House.
“I have questions about the House, and some of that comes from what I believe may have been a little bit of overreach with respect to redistricting,” he said. Republicans kicked off mid-decade redistricting in Texas to net up to five seats for Republicans at the behest of Mr. Trump, but Democrats in other states responded to net more seats for themselves, making the outcome unlikely.
But Tillis said his “beef” about the GOP’s chances in the midterms “almost always relates to what I consider to be how things are being done.”
Tillis praised the president’s national security policy concerning NATO and said he intends to shield his legacy.
“And if I have to speak bluntly, that’s what I’m going to do in my remaining time in the Senate,” Tillis said.
Miller and Noem have faced scrutiny following the shooting deaths of two American citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, last month by immigration agents amid the Trump administration’s crackdown in Minneapolis. Dubbed Operation Metro Surge, immigration enforcement agents have targeted undocumented immigrants in the Minneapolis area, but White House border czar Tom Homan announced Thursday that the controversial operation will conclude by next week.
Tillis has been critical of Miller and Noem and called them “amateurs.” He was the first Republican to publicly demand Noem’s resignation, accusing her of taking the administration “into the ground” on the issue of immigration that Republicans “should own.”
“But they have destroyed that for Republicans, something that got the president elected,” Tillis earlier told reporters on Capitol Hill. “They have destroyed it through their incompetence.”
But Tillis has not said whether he would vote to impeach Noem, which would require a two-thirds vote in the Senate. 187 House Democrats have cosponsored the impeachment resolution against Noem, but it is unlikely to clear a simple majority.
