Sen. Thom Tillis is dreaming of a Hegseth-free Christmas.
The North Carolina Republican, who is not running for re-election this fall, revealed to Politico that he hopes his final seven months in office will witness a major departure from President Donald Trump’s Cabinet.
“I’d love to see Pete Hegseth fired because he’s incompetent and doing a horrible job,” Tillis said. “That’s kind of on a Christmas wish list.”
Tillis said the defense secretary—a former Fox News weekend host who calls himself the “secretary of war”—had “misinformed” Trump about the challenges of his war in Iran, which has dragged on for nearly three months with no end in sight.
“I suspect that Hegseth cast aside concerns he was hearing from some of the finest people that ever served in uniform and took his cowboy-ish approach to going into Iran,” Tillis said.
Since taking over, Hegseth has purged the military of much of its top leadership and focused on culture war battles such as troops’ personal grooming standards.
Tillis also said Hegseth’s “incompetence” was “largely responsible” for the stalemate in Iran.
The two sides have failed to reach an agreement over a permanent ceasefire, control of the Strait of Hormuz, and the future of Iran’s nuclear program, which Tehran says it needs for civilian energy production.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House and Defense Department for comment.
Last year, Tillis blasted Hegseth as being “out of his depth” at the Pentagon.
He has also been one of the few Republicans in Congress willing to oppose Trump, including blocking his nomination of Kevin Warsh to lead the Federal Reserve until the Justice Department dropped its investigation into outgoing Fed Chair Jerome Powell.
This week, he helped spearhead a Republican mutiny over Trump’s $1 billion bid for his White House ballroom project and his $1.8 billion slush fund to provide secret payouts to allies who say they were unfairly targeted by the Biden administration.
Tillis told Politico that all that troublemaking was aimed at trying to save Trump—and the Republican Party—from itself.
“Right now, I’m worried about the election in November. I’m also concerned with his legacy,” Tilli said. “He has people working for him who couldn’t give a s--- about his legacy. This is just another ticket they punch as they go up the ladder.”
