Tenure
After the release of the Access Hollywood tape during the 2016 United States presidential election, Tillis called Trump's comments "indefensible". According to Politico, he "began the Trump era by negotiating with Democrats on immigration and co-authoring legislation to protect special counsel Robert Mueller" but has increasingly aligned himself with the president due to pressure from his party. While occasionally criticizing Trump's tone, Tillis said in 2017 that he had "not deviated once from any nomination or any vote that the president happens to be supportive of" and has voted with Trump's stated positions 90% of the time as of January 2021.
In 2016, Tillis opposed filling the then Supreme Court vacancy until after the election, adding the nomination "would be best left to the next president." With around seven months until the 2016 presidential election, Tillis argued that the United States was "in the middle of a presidential election, and the Senate majority is giving the American people a voice to determine the direction of the Supreme Court". In September 2020, with less than two months to the next presidential election, Tillis supported an immediate vote on President Trump's nominee. The day after Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death, he said Trump would pick a "well-qualified and conservative jurist" while Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden would pick a "liberal activist".
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Tillis apologized after he was spotted not wearing a face mask in a crowd during Trump's acceptance speech at the 2020 Republican National Convention, saying, "I fell short of my own standard." He was criticized after he suggested that Hispanic people were harder hit because they were less likely to wear masks and practice social distancing. Tillis tested positive for COVID-19 on October 2, 2020, after a White House event. He broadly supported Governor Roy Cooper's handling of COVID-19, an unusual stance for a prominent North Carolina Republican. He also took a stance against claims that North Carolina's COVID-19 case increases were due to migrants entering the state, saying, "the biggest factor right now is we have far too many people who are refusing to get the vaccine."
Analysts have generally regarded Tillis as a moderate Republican. In 2023, the North Carolina Republican Party voted to censure him, particularly over his stances on immigration and gay marriage.
In June 2025, Tillis was one of three Republican senators to oppose the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. After Trump criticized him, Tillis announced he would not seek reelection, saying, "In Washington over the last few years, it's become increasingly evident that leaders who are willing to embrace bipartisanship, compromise, and demonstrate independent thinking are becoming an endangered species."
In August 2026, Tillis announced a memoir, How to Lose Friends and Antagonize Presidents: The Trouble with Sycophants, Courage Outsourcing, and Partisan Groupthink, scheduled for publication in October 2026. In the book, Tillis criticizes several figures in the Trump administration and the Republican Party.
