Sen. Thom Tillis says that, without checks on power, “we will have a sort of dictator king if we’re not careful”

Updated on: October 4, 2026 / 8:06 PM EDT / CBS News

As Sen. Thom Tillis exits the Senate, he's blasting many of the advisers President Trump has surrounded himself with as "sycophants, and calling on his colleagues to stand up to executive power like the co-equal branch of government they are."

The 66-year-old senior senator from North Carolina unloads on what he calls the "WTF moments" of the second Trump Administration in a new book, "How to Lose Friends and Antagonize Presidents." Having served in the Senate during the Barack Obama, Joe Biden and both Trump presidencies, Tillis said he's increasingly worried about how the nation's system of checks and balances is being tested by the outsized influence of the executive branch.

"We will have a sort of dictator king if we're not careful," he said.

Every recent White House has been eager to govern by executive order, something that's been especially true during the current Trump administration, Tillis said. Presidents, he said, fail to understand that Congress is a coequal branch that should be treated as a peer, and that Congress needs to act as such.

"I would say the same thing for Democratic-controlled Senate under Biden and…

Original source: https://www.cbsnews.com/entertainment/