华盛顿--共和党参议员汤姆·蒂利斯（Thom Tillis）在一本新书中表示，他在2025年1月投票确认国防部长皮特·赫格塞斯（Pete Hegseth）是“我职业生涯中最大的遗憾”，他也“应该阻止”罗伯特·F。Kennedy Jr.在唐纳德·特朗普总统第二任期初期担任卫生与公众服务部部长。
MARY CLARE JALONICK WASHINGTON — Republican Sen. Thom Tillis 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.
在将于周二出版的《如何失去朋友并对抗总统》中，这位北卡罗来纳州参议员为他当时的决定进行了辩护，即不成为阻止特朗普提名人获得确认的“荒野中孤独的声音”。但他明确表示，他始终对有关赫格塞斯动荡的管理风格、对待女性和酗酒的指控持怀疑态度--赫格塞斯否认了所有这些。
In “How to Lose Friends and Antagonize Presidents,” to be published Tuesday, the North Carolina senator defends his decision at the time to not be “the lone voice in the wilderness” preventing Trump’s nominees from confirmation. But he makes clear he was always skeptical about allegations about Hegseth’s turbulent management style, treatment of women and excessive drinking — all of which Hegseth denied.
蒂利斯写道：“我知道，还有其他像我一样的人，共和党人同意同意特朗普团队早期的要求，无论这些要求多么荒谬，他们相信不这样做将意味着他们政治生涯的结束，而现在他们看到事情已经走得太远了。”
“I know for a fact that there are others like me,” Tillis writes, “Republicans who agreed to go along with the early demands of the Trump team no matter how ridiculous they were, believing that failing to do so would mean the end of their political career, and who now see that things have gone way too far.”
他写道，他可以统计出至少有30名共和党同事“私下对总统的许多行为表示保留（温和地说）。然后，当记者带着相机和麦克风出现时，他们除了好话什么也没说。”蒂利斯去年宣布，他不会在总统全面减税和支出削减计划的“临界点”竞选连任，他将在任期的最后几个月出版这本书。他加入了一长串共和党人的行列，一旦政治损失减少，他们就加大了对特朗普的公开谴责力度。
He writes that he can count at least 30 of his GOP colleagues who have “expressed reservations (to put it mildly) about many of the president’s actions in private. Then, when the reporters showed up with their cameras and microphones, they’d have nothing but nice things to say.”Tillis, who announced last year that he would not run for reelection in a “breaking point” with the president on his sweeping tax and spending cuts package, is publishing the book in his final months in office. He joins a long list of Republicans who have ratcheted up their public denunciations of Trump once they had less to lose politically.
尽管如此，蒂利斯大多将全部责任归咎于特朗普，他说：“我的牛肉不是他，而是他为他工作的白痴。他称总统是“一个惊人的政治天才”。
Still, Tillis mostly deflects full blame from Trump, saying, “my beef is not with him, but the idiots he’s got working for him.”He calls the president “an amazing political talent.”
与此同时，他警告说，这是一个滑向威权主义的滑坡，并敦促他的同事们“醒来”，为了他们自己的政治利益，更经常地反击特朗普。他说，行政部门的过度扩张是行不通的，迟早会“反咬多数党一口”。蒂利斯还预测共和党人将在11月的中期选举中遭遇“大屠杀”。
At the same time, he warns of a slippery slope toward authoritarianism and urges his colleagues to “wake up” and push back on Trump more often, for their own political good. Executive overreach, he says, doesn’t work and sooner or later, “comes back to bite the majority party in the ass.”Tillis also predicts a “bloodbath” for Republicans in November’s midterm elections .
他写道：“一直以来，我们都有多次机会离开小路，避开追赶我们的巨大青铜怪物。”
“All along, we’ve had multiple chances to get off the path and avoid the giant bronze monster chasing us down,” he writes.
这本书充满了咒骂和谴责。他批评特朗普的关税、蒂利斯所说的激进移民突袭是“故意制造混乱”的努力，以及他最初支持的伊朗战争。他说，这场战争只能在一个有意愿的国家联盟中结束，如果特朗普让“皮特·赫格塞斯滚蛋”。蒂利斯将Hegseth的确认投票推迟到2025年1月24日晚上，因为他权衡了他的决定，与白宫，与Hegseth和Hegseth本人一起工作的人交谈。最后，他说他不能证实最严重的指控，并将支持Hegseth的确认。他的投票使总数达到50-50，副总统JD Vance打破了平局。
The book is filled with cuss words and condemnations. He criticizes Trump’s tariffs, the aggressive immigration raids that Tillis says were an effort to “intentionally sow disorder” and the Iran war, which he initially supported. He said the war can only end with a coalition of willing nations and if Trump gets “Pete Hegseth the hell out of the way.”Tillis pushed Hegseth’s confirmation vote late into the evening on Jan. 24, 2025, as he weighed his decision, talking to the White House, people who had worked with Hegseth and Hegseth himself. In the end, he said he couldn’t corroborate the worst allegations and would support Hegseth’s confirmation. His vote brought the total to 50-50, and Vice President JD Vance broke the tie.
在谈到他对肯尼迪的投票时，蒂利斯写道：“我想现在说起来很容易，但我是必须忍受那张选票的人，以及肯尼迪任期给国家造成的所有破坏。”在这两次投票中，他都表示自己不想成为决定因素。
On his vote for Kennedy , Tillis writes that “I guess it’s easy to say now, but I’m the one who has to live with that vote and all the havoc Kennedy’s tenure has caused the country as a result.”On both votes, he says he didn’t want to be the deciding factor.
他写道：“我无意让我的同事们把勇气交给我，而他们却假装同意特朗普总统提出的可疑提名。”
“I had no intention of letting my colleagues outsource their courage to me while they pretended to go along with the questionable nomination President Trump had put forward,” he writes.
蒂利斯说，如果你在一切问题上反对特朗普，“你就会失去所有影响力”。“如果你反对他并输了，你的情况就更糟了。”他在书中强烈批评了特朗普最初挑选的其他几位内阁成员，包括前国家情报总监图尔西·加巴德、前国土安全部部长克里斯蒂·诺姆和商务部长霍华德·卢特尼克。
If you oppose Trump on everything, “you lose all influence,” Tillis says. “If you oppose him and lose, you are in even worse shape.”He strongly criticizes several of Trump’s other initial picks for the Cabinet in the book, including former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
2025年6月，蒂利斯出人意料地宣布不会竞选连任，与此同时，他对特朗普及其减税和支出的“美丽大法案”的批评不断升级。在参议员蒂利斯表示他无法支持该法案削减医疗补助后，特朗普在社交媒体上攻击了蒂利斯。蒂利斯说他心里想，“我受够了。”“每个人都达到了崩溃的临界点，”他写道。
Tillis’s surprise announcement in June 2025 that he wouldn’t be running for reelection came as he escalated criticism against Trump and his “ Big Beautiful Bill ” of tax and spending cuts. Trump attacked Tillis on social media after the senator said he couldn’t support the bill’s cuts to Medicaid . Tillis says he thought to himself, “I’m done.”“Everyone reaches a breaking point,” he writes.
他给总统发短信，要求他在参议院寻找替代者，特朗普回答说：“我是！DJT。”2026年5月，特朗普再次攻击蒂利斯，称他为“放弃者！”在社交媒体上，以及其他侮辱。蒂利斯在书的结尾发了一条带有脏话的短信，作为回应。
He texted the president asking him to look for his replacement in the Senate, to which Trump replied “I am! DJT.”In May 2026, Trump again attacked Tillis, calling him a “QUITTER!” on social media, among other insults. Tillis ends the book with a profanity-laced text he sent to the president in response.
蒂利斯写信给特朗普：“我关心你是否失败，而现在我们正在失败。”
“I care if you fail and right now we are failing,” Tillis wrote to Trump.