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Time Magazine
17 minutes ago
- Time Magazine
Why Republican Senator Thom Tillis Is Retiring
Get on board the Trump train or get out. That's been President Donald Trump's message to Republicans in Congress since his first term. Some of his biggest intraparty critics, like former Rep. Liz Cheney, put up a fight and lost. Others, like former Sen. Mitt Romney, chose not to run for reelection. As Trump picks new fights in his second term with insufficiently loyal Republican lawmakers, Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina has become the latest to announce that he plans to leave of his own volition. 'Great News!' Trump reacted on his Truth Social platform after Tillis announced in a statement that he does not plan to run for reelection in 2026. '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,' Tillis said. 'When people see independent thinking on the other side, they cheer. But when those very same people see independent thinking coming from their side, they scorn, ostracize, and even censure them.' Tillis, 64, said he hadn't been 'excited' about running for another term for some time, and he had reportedly been leaning against running but had given himself until the end of the summer to decide. His decision, however, was apparently made easier after Trump launched a multi-post social-media tirade against the Senator after Tillis voted on Saturday against advancing the President's massive tax-and-spending legislative priority, dubbed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB). Trump accused Tillis of grandstanding 'in order to get some publicity for himself, for a possible, but very difficult Re-Election.' He added that he would be 'meeting with' potential candidates to run against Tillis in a primary race. 'Tillis is a talker and complainer, NOT A DOER!' Trump said. 'It's not a hard choice,' Tillis said of his decision to retire from the Senate at the end of his term, saying that he wishes to spend more time with his family instead of 'spending another six years navigating the political theatre and partisan gridlock in Washington.' Here's what to know. Who is Thom Tillis? Tillis was born in Jacksonville, Fla., in 1960. His working-class family, including three boys all named Thomas after their father and three girls, moved frequently when he was a child, and he graduated from high school in Nashville, Tenn., in 1978, voted by his peers as 'most likely to succeed.' He initially joined the Air Force but was honorably discharged before he could go to basic training, after a car accident severely injured his hand. He instead worked various jobs, eventually working his way to a position at accounting and consulting firm PriceWaterhouse (and later IBM after it acquired PriceWaterhouse), while attending night school at several institutions to earn a bachelor's degree. In 1998, Tillis moved with his wife and children to North Carolina, and he entered politics in his hometown of Cornelius in 2002, after pushing for a bike trail and being asked to join the parks and recreation advisory board. In 2003, he was elected a town commissioner, and in 2006, he ran and won the Republican primary for a state General Assembly seat, and he ran unopposed in the general election that year and unopposed in three subsequent reelection bids in 2008, 2010, and 2012. Tillis, who had earned a reputation as pro-business and moderate, was elected Speaker of the state House in 2011, after Republicans won control of the chamber for the first time since 1998. In 2014, after helping to shepherd conservative legislation in North Carolina's capital, he set his sights on Washington, D.C., running against and ultimately defeating then-incumbent Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan. He narrowly won reelection in 2020 after Democratic challenger Cal Cunningham was caught in a sex scandal. How did Tillis and Trump fall out? As a Senator, in terms of leadership and ideology, Tillis has been firmly in the middle of the pack in his party, according to the independent government transparency and accountability tracker GovTrack. Among other things, he's known for opposing abortion and advocating for corporate tax cuts. And he's supported every conservative Supreme Court justice nomination before him. But he's also been unafraid to cross party lines on issues including gun control and immigration. Tillis has also been known to occasionally butt heads with Trump. In 2016, when Trump had become the presumptive GOP nominee for President, Tillis called on Republicans to support Trump. 'We have to recognize that more than anything else, we have to unite,' he said at the time. 'At the end of the day, we're all Republicans.' He would later criticize Trump's controversial comments on an Access Hollywood tape as 'indefensible' and said Trump should 'apologize to women everywhere,' though he continued to back the candidate. In 2017, he supported the appointment of Robert Mueller as a special counsel to investigate Trump and later co-sponsored a bill with Delaware Democrat Sen. Chris Coons to protect Mueller from interference by the President. Pushing back against criticism from other Republicans, he told Politico in 2018 that he wanted to take a stand against 'situational ethics' in which politicians change their stances based on who is occupying the White House. 'Courage is when you know you're going to do something that's going to anger your base,' he said. In 2019, Tillis wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post to criticize Trump's declaration of a national emergency to divert funds to border control. 'I cannot justify providing the executive with more ways to bypass Congress,' Tillis wrote at the time, citing conservatives' past opposition to former President Barack Obama's executive actions on immigration. 'There is no intellectual honesty in now turning around and arguing that there's an imaginary asterisk attached to executive overreach—that it's acceptable for my party but not thy party.' (A few weeks later, however, he backed down and supported the emergency declaration.) Trump went on to endorse Tillis ahead of his challenging reelection contest in 2020, saying that the Senator 'really stepped up to the plate,' and Tillis voted against Trump's impeachment that year, saying it was 'motivated by partisan politics and a desire to remove the President from office instead of allowing the American people to decide his fate at the ballot box in November.' In 2021, following the Capitol riot, Tillis voted against Trump's second impeachment on charges of incitement of insurrection, though he would later call Jan. 6 'a dark day in American history' and said that many involved needed to be held accountable and 'go to prison.' At the start of Trump's second term, Tillis called Trump's blanket pardon of Jan. 6 participants 'a bad idea.' Tillis also dashed Trump's nomination of Ed Martin to be U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. Martin previously made inflammatory comments about the Jan. 6 Capitol riots and had come to the rioters' defense. Tillis' opposition effectively killed Martin's nomination in the Senate Judiciary Committee, earning the ire of Trump's MAGA base. Tillis drew further criticism from the right when he scrutinized the nomination of Pete Hegseth to become Defense Secretary, though he ended up supporting Hegseth's confirmation, which passed on a tiebreaker vote by Vice President J.D. Vance. Tillis and Trump's relationship finally broke over the controversial tax-and-spending package, which is estimated to add trillions of dollars to the national debt and lead to significant Medicaid cuts. 'I did my homework on behalf of North Carolinians, and I cannot support this bill in its current form,' Tillis said in a statement on June 28. 'It would result in tens of billions of dollars in lost funding for North Carolina, including our hospitals and rural communities.' After Tillis and fellow Republican Sen. Rand Paul voted with Democrats against a procedural advancement of the bill, which narrowly passed, Trump lashed out on social media against the pair. He previously launched a similar campaign against Republican holdout in the House Thomas Massie. Why does Tillis' retirement matter? Whereas Massie will likely face a difficult primary challenge supported by Trump that will focus on his opposition to the OBBB, by not running for reelection, Tillis will face no electoral repercussions for remaining outspoken against the bill. Tillis said in his statement announcing his retirement that, over his remaining year-and-a-half remaining in office, he plans on 'focusing on producing meaningful results without the distraction of raising money or campaigning for another election. I look forward to having the pure freedom to call the balls and strikes as I see fit and representing the great people of North Carolina to the best of my ability.' And he started on Sunday night, when he took to the Senate floor to deliver a scathing rebuke of the OBBB. 'What do I tell 663,000 people in two years, or three years, when President Trump breaks his promise by pushing them off of Medicaid because the funding's not there anymore?' he said. Tillis compared Trump's campaign promises not to cut Medicaid to Obama's notorious 'if you like your health care plan, you can keep it' unkept promise about the Affordable Care Act. Tillis added: 'Mr. President, we owe it to the American people and I owe it to the people of North Carolina to withhold my affirmative vote until it's demonstrated to me that we've done our homework.' Tillis' decision to not run for reelection comes as Democrats seek to challenge Republicans' dominance in Congress in the upcoming midterms. Former Gov. Roy Cooper is expected to present Democrats with the best chance of flipping the seat, though he has not yet officially entered what is expected to be a 'blockbuster race.' For his part, Tillis has said he still wants Republicans to win in 2026, but on social media he offered some advice to Trump about his potential replacement: 'Word to the wise, let's avoid minisoldr,' he said, using the reported username of former Trump-endorsed North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson, who was embroiled in scandal after CNN reported he'd made lewd and inflammatory comments on a pornography website, including referring to himself as a 'perv' and a 'Nazi.' But Trump could get behind someone much closer to home: His daughter-in-law Lara Trump is reportedly 'seriously considering' entering the race, just days after her husband Eric told the Financial Times that he could see himself running for President one day.
Miami Herald
22 minutes ago
- Miami Herald
Trump says Haiti is safe enough for people to return. UN chief says otherwise
A new briefing by United Nations chief António Guterres on the worsening gang violence in Haiti is challenging the Trump administration's view that conditions inside the volatile Caribbean nation have 'improved enough' for more than a half million Haitians temporarily residing in the United States to safely return home. Guterres' report, obtained by the Miami Herald before it was made public, is part of his regular update on the situation in Haiti to the U.N. Security Council. An advanced copy was sent to the council, which has scheduled a closed-door meeting on Monday and a public discussion on Wednesday about the situation in Haiti. Written before the announcement on Friday by the Department of Homeland Security terminating Temporary Protected Status for Haitians, the report provides an independent assessment of the reality in the country, where criminal gangs have triggered a complex humanitarian crisis. Along with causing the displacement of people from their homes, hunger and a collapse of the education system, armed gangs have shuttered hospitals and schools, forced both rich and poor to flee their homes — sometimes with nothing more than the clothes on their backs — and have 5.7 million people, nearly half of the country's population, facing acute hunger. 'Haiti continues to face considerable challenges, particularly arising from the deterioration of the security situation and the expanding foothold of the gangs,' the U.N. secretary-general said in the report, highlighting the rising levels of violence particularly targeting women. There have been more than 4,000 gang-related homicides in the first five months of this year, an increase of 24% compared to the same time frame last year, he said. The rise, coupled with growing public frustrations over the government's inability to protect them, is pushing many Haitians to run vigilantism, Guterres warned. 'In sustaining their territorial expansion, armed gangs have seized strategic locations across the West, Central and Artibonite, spreading violence and committing serious human rights abuses against the population,' he said. 'All access routes to the capital are now under gang control.' DHS Secretary Kristi Noem on Friday announced the end of Haiti's TPS designation. TPS allowed an estimated 521,000 Haitians to legally live and work in the U.S. until conditions at home improved. Justifying the reason for ending the protection on Sept. 2, a DHS spokesperson said 'the environmental situation in Haiti has improved enough that it is safe for Haitian citizens to return home.' Absent a change of heart by President Donald Trump or an injunction by the courts, the decision means Haitians — some of whom had been living in the United States for decades due to Haiti's perpetual instability — face returning to a nation in turmoil. Gangs tighten grip The attacks are being carried out by members of a powerful gang coalition, Viv Ansanm, which has been tightening its grip since January. Gang members have forced government offices and agencies to relocate, affecting access to essential services and accelerating the country's economic collapse. Nearly 1.3 million people have been forced out of their homes and are living in makeshift shelters, according to the U.N.'s International Organization for Migration. The number is just below the 1.5 million left homeless in 2010 after a massive earthquake prompted President Barack Obama to suspend deportations to Haiti and designate the country for TPS. In the years since, hundreds of thousand of others have benefited from the designation and extensions, including ones that followed the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. 'The main international airport is closed, and gangs have taken over the capital. Nothing is working,' said Pierre Esperance, a human rights activist in Port-au-Prince. 'If you send all of these people to Haiti, where are they going to go?' Faced with the worsening violence and political instability after Moïse's still unsolved killing plunged the country into further chaos, many Haitians left because they had no choice, he added. 'It's a situation that is grave, chaotic and sad for Haitians,' Esperance said. The Miami-based Haitian-American Foundation for Democracy agrees. Forcibly returning Haitian nationals 'is a recipe for greater chaos in Haiti and throughout the region,' the advocacy group said in a statement Guterres' report highlighted several recent events. Port-au-Prince-based gangs, he wrote, now partially control the town of Mirebalais — where the country's most modern and best equipped hospital has been forced to close — and the town of Saut-d'Eau. Both are home to key roads that link the capital to northern regions of the country and the neighboring Dominican Republic. This month gangs set fire to Mirebalais' central public market, while fed up residents broke into the Péligre hydroelectric plant and sabotaged equipment in a show of frustration with the lack of response from Haitian authorities. The twice plunged Port-au-Prince into darkness. In response to the violence, the government has implemented a series of security measures, including the renewal of the nationwide state of emergency until July 31. The country's Transitional Presidential Council also adopted a resolution authorizing the involvement of a controversial force, the Protected Areas Security Brigade, to fight gangs despite the agency's strained relationships with the Haiti National Police. Guterres' report steers clears of some U.N. officials' concerns about the deadly use of force to root out gangs and instead says that between March and May, the operations resulted in the deaths of at least 262 gang members. Security Council meets In February, Guterres recommended several measures. He nixed the deployment of a formal U.N. peacekeeping mission to Haiti instead offering for the Security Council to take on some of the financial burden for the multinational security mission being led by Kenya. But so far, the proposal has stalled at the U.N. where council members have been waiting on a clear directive from Washington. The Trump administration has not yet said whether it intends to support Guterres' recommendation. Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently called on the Organization of American States to play a more active role in Haiti. But rather than agree to lead a security intervention, as Rubio has suggested, the OAS last week adopted a resolution calling for concrete solutions to resolve the crisis. On Monday, members of the Security Council are scheduled to meet in a closed briefing to begin deliberations on Guterres' proposal. The Security Council has several reports on Haiti, including one showing that the number of child victims of the armed conflict has skyrocketed since last year by almost 500%, and another detailing the effects of the intensification of gang violence and the rise in human rights violations. That report was put together by the Security Council's panel of experts on Haiti who have been tasked with investigating the violence to help members decide who to target with global sanctions. The panel of experts' report is equally grim and also details the country's failed transition, which was stood up over a year ago with the help of the United States, the Caribbean Community and others. 'Gangs have been increasingly aggressive,' a report prepared by a Security Council panel of experts said, noting that armed groups have targeted the last 'free bastions' of Port-au-Prince. 'Alongside murder, kidnapping and rape, gangs have perpetrated at least four massacres' since mid-October, killing than 200 people in one case. The report warns that the number of mob lynchings is growing, as are the instances of extrajudicial killings by the Haitian national police. Mission members slain In a letter to the Security Council, Kenya President Willliam Ruto said the security mission his country is spearheading up in Haiti nees more equipment and operational support. The mission currently has 991 security personnel in Haiti, including 731 Kenyan police officers who arrived in three separate contingents starting June 25, 2024. That number is far below the planned 2,500 officers the mission originally planned to send to Haiti, said Ruto. Two members of the multinational force were killed this year by gangs. Ruto also notes that of 12 envisioned forward operating bases, only three have been established. In addition, the mission lacks air and sea capabilities, both of which he said are critical to deal with gang attacks from the mountains and at sea. 'The Haitian people require greater engagement and support from the international community for the restoration of sustainable peace and security,' Ruto said.
Time Magazine
23 minutes ago
- Time Magazine
After Iran, Trump Aims to End War in Gaza
After brokering a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Iran, Donald Trump is urging Israel and Hamas to make a deal that would stop the 20-month-long war in Gaza that has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians and over a thousand Israelis. 'MAKE THE DEAL IN GAZA. GET THE HOSTAGES BACK!!!' the U.S. President posted on Truth Social early Sunday. [time-brightcove not-tgx='true'] Trump told reporters on Friday that an agreement could be reached within the next week. On Saturday evening Trump said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is 'right now in the process of negotiating a Deal with Hamas, which will include getting the Hostages back,' in a post slamming the corruption proceedings against Netanyahu. An Israeli court on Monday postponed this week's hearings in Netanyahu's trial after he made a request based on classified diplomatic and security reasons. 'How is it possible that the Prime Minister of Israel can be forced to sit in a Courtroom all day long, over NOTHING (Cigars, Bugs Bunny Doll, etc.). It is a POLITICAL WITCH HUNT, very similar to the Witch Hunt that I was forced to endure,' Trump wrote. 'This travesty of 'Justice' will interfere with both Iran and Hamas negotiations.' Read More: Trump Tries to 'Save' Netanyahu as Israeli PM Faces Challenges at Home An Israeli official told the Associated Press that Ron Dermer, a top adviser to Netanyahu, will visit Washington this week for ceasefire talks. Netanyahu met with his security Cabinet on Sunday evening and plans are being made for him to visit Washington in coming weeks, the official said. Trump's shift in focus towards Gaza comes after Iran and Israel agreed to a tenuous ceasefire on June 23, ending the so-called '12 Day War' ignited by Israel's attack on Iran's nuclear program. Arab mediators, Egypt and Qatar, renewed a ceasefire push for Gaza after the U.S. and Israel bombed Iran's nuclear facilities. Hamas has told mediators that it is ready to resume talks but reiterated that any deal must include an end to the war and Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, a Hamas official told Reuters. Call for ceasefire comes as Israel escalates war At the same time that Trump called for a deal, Israel continued to escalate its military bombardment of Gaza. The Israeli military ordered a mass evacuation of Palestinians in northern Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of people live in eastern and northern Gaza City and the Jabaliya refugee camp. The Israeli Defense Forces' attacks will expand westward to Gaza City center, the order said. People are ordered to evacuate to Mawasi in southern Gaza, which Israel has designated as a humanitarian area. Uprooting their lives at a moment's notice has become routine for Palestinians in Gaza over the last nearly two years of war. Humanitarian organizations have criticized Israel's sweeping evacuation orders in the past as being unpredictable and having short deadlines that are virtually impossible for many, including the sick and disabled. On Sunday, Palestinians in Gaza City were yet again forced to load their children and essentials onto donkey carts before the military's attacks, the AP reported. United Nations officials have said that nowhere in Gaza is safe. At least five people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a tent encampment in Khan Younis near Mawasi, the designated safe area, over the weekend, medics said. 'A month ago, they told us to go to Al-Mawasi and we stayed there for a month, it is a safe zone,' Palestinian Zeyad Abu Marouf told Reuters. Three of his children were killed and a fourth wounded in the airstrike, he said. 'Families have been displaced again and again—and are now confined to less than one-fifth of Gaza's land,' U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said on Friday. 'Even these shrinking spaces are under threat. Bombs are falling—on tents, on families, on those with nowhere left to run.' Roadblocks remain over a deal In spite of Trump's optimism, skepticism over a deal remains. Hamas has accused Israeli leaders of purposely delaying a deal. Hamas official Mahmoud Mardawi reportedly said on Telegram on Sunday that Netanyahu set 'impossible conditions aimed at thwarting the possibility of reaching a ceasefire agreement and a deal on the hostages.' Hamas has reportedly offered Israel a deal that includes the release of all hostages in exchange for a full withdrawal of Israel's military from Gaza and an end to the war. But Mardawi said Netanyahu has insisted on a temporary agreement that releases only 10 hostages. 'Netanyahu lies when he claims he is not involved in choosing the names of the hostages,' Mardawi wrote. 'He does not want a deal.' Netanyahu spokesperson Omer Dostri did not address Mardawi's claims but said, 'Hamas was the only obstacle to ending the war,' according to the AP. Israel has said it will only agree to end the war in exchange for the full dismantlement and exile of Hamas. While Trump has repeatedly urged a ceasefire in Gaza, he's also suggested a U.S. takeover that turns the territory into 'a freedom zone' and proposed that Jordan and Egypt take in Palestinians as part of a 'clean out' of the Gaza Strip. In February, Trump said the U.S. could take a 'long-term ownership position' over Gaza, 'level it out, create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area.' That month, he also shared an AI-generated video on Truth Social of 'Trump Gaza,' showing a reconstructed Gaza Strip with skyscrapers, luxury cars, and Trump drinking by a pool with Netanyahu. Even if a deal is reached, it's unclear whether it will last. Israel and Hamas reached a multi-phase ceasefire agreement in January, just as Trump was taking office. But Israel broke the ceasefire in March when it launched surprise airstrikes on Gaza before declaring that it was resuming the war. Since then, pressure has been mounting on Netanyahu to agree to a ceasefire, both from within and outside Israel. Pro-Palestinian protesters around the world turned out over the weekend to call for an end to the war. And earlier this month, the U.N. adopted a resolution demanding an immediate, unconditional, and permanent ceasefire, with Russian Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya saying that it is the international community's responsibility to stop the 'slaughter' in Gaza. Protests in Israel also resumed after a two-week pause during the Israel-Iran war, with demonstrators demanding a deal that would free the hostages still in Gaza. 'There's a deal on the table and what prevents it is Netanyahu's refusal to end the war,' said Einav Zangauker, the mother of one of the hostages, at the rally. Earlier this month, former Prime Minister of Israel Ehud Barak wrote in a TIME essay calling for Netanyahu to back a Trump-brokered ceasefire: 'In the coming few days, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will face a defining choice between a politically motivated 'war of deception' in Gaza and a deal to release all hostages while ending the war. He must choose between his extreme-right ministers—Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich—or aligning with Donald Trump.' Netanyahu said at the Sunday security meeting that 'many opportunities have opened up' after Israel's 'victory' in Iran, and for one of the first times he appeared to prioritize hostage exchange over the defeat of Hamas, potentially signaling appetite for a ceasefire deal: 'Firstly, to rescue the hostages,' he said. 'Of course, we will also need to solve the Gaza issue, defeat Hamas, but I believe we will achieve both tasks.'
