The View cohosts pressed North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis on his continued support for President Trump during a live interview, and the Republican refused to back down.
Whoopi Goldberg opened a two-segment sit-down at the Hot Topics table by noting that Tillis’s new book lives up to its title, then went straight at the core tension the panel wanted to highlight.
The North Carolina Republican, 66, appeared on the ABC daytime show to discuss How to Lose Friends and Antagonize Presidents. In the book he calls Trump a “snowflake,” criticizes Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and former Secretary Kristi Noem, and objects to what he termed a “bogus investigation” opened on James Comey. Goldberg and her cohosts still demanded to know how he can keep supporting the president.
Entertainment Weekly reported the exchange, which aired as Americans look ahead to November’s midterm elections.
Goldberg put the contradiction to him directly.
"I have to say, you kind of voted for a lot of these folks. You also call [Trump] out for being a snowflake. So have we. And yet, you still say you support him and call him an amazing political talent. What am I missing?"
Tillis answered without apology.
"Uh, the fact that he’s won two national elections."
He kept going. Trump, he said, draws North Carolina voters who would never cast a ballot for Tillis himself. That coalition-building makes Trump “a great political force.” Tillis said he hopes the same energy can be used “for good,” and warned that politicians out of touch with voters will feel it in November.
When he added that “there are some good people in this administration,” Ana Navarro cut in.
"It does us no good if the good people are complicit and silent."
Navarro, a registered Republican and longtime Trump critic, told Tillis she likes him yet said his stances break her heart for being inconsistent.
Tillis then turned to Speaker Mike Johnson and the broader political cycle. He told the table that Johnson is only the second Republican speaker since the Civil War, a result he pinned on Barack Obama and Democratic overreach. The whole point of his book, he said, is to warn winners against reading every victory as a blank check.
"The whole premise of the book is saying stop reading a win as a mandate, folks."
Sunny Hostin rejected the comparison on the spot. The former federal prosecutor said Trump’s actions are unprecedented and that lining them up against the Obama years is “terribly disingenuous.” She also noted Trump lost a presidential election to Joe Biden.
After the commercial break the conversation landed on Hegseth. Tillis said flatly, “I hope he gets fired,” while adding he does not expect impeachment over the defense secretary’s polarizing conduct.
Navarro zeroed in on the votes themselves. She reminded Tillis he had criticized Hegseth and Noem in the book “and yet you voted for them.” She then cited his recent vote to confirm Attorney General Todd Blanche.
"You know you’re voting for people who are rubber-stamped and unqualified, but you keep doing it, Tom!"
Tillis answered that politics means playing the hand you are dealt. He called Blanche, the president’s former defense counsel, “the most qualified person” to deliver honest feedback upward. Navarro shot back, “Oh, come on!” and said she doubts Blanche is giving Trump any real pushback.
The panel’s posture fit a pattern. Over the past year The View has booked a string of conservatives, Ted Cruz, Marjorie Taylor Greene, JD Vance, and others, then used the platform to test their loyalty and frame any remaining support for Trump as a puzzle that needs solving on air. Tillis did not treat it as a puzzle. He treated two national wins, durable voter coalitions, and the political cost of Democratic overreach as the plain explanation.
Daytime television still struggles with a Republican who will criticize a Cabinet secretary and still back the president who keeps winning the voters that matter.
