And it's an ex-MAGA Republican Senator from the formerly pro-slavery southern state of North Carolina who made the announcement.
Tillis unloads on Noem and Miller, comparing them to ‘sycophants’
Sarah Davis
Sat, January 31, 2026
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) compared Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller to fictional villains on Friday, calling them both a “sycophant” as tensions rise over the administration’s immigration enforcement efforts.
“A sycophant is more than just a ‘yes-man,’” Tillis wrote in a lengthy post on social platform X. “It refers to someone who acts excessively servile toward someone important in order to gain an advantage.”
He added, “They aren’t just being nice, they are using excessive flattery, often insincerely, to get what they want, whether that’s a promotion, social status or favor.”
The senator compared Miller to Grima Wormtongue from “The Lord of the Rings,” who is an adviser to a king.
“He uses whispers and false flattery to control the King’s decisions, all while secretly serving Saruman,” the North Carolina Republican continued in his post. “He is a classic example of a sycophant who uses his position to poison a leader’s standing for his own benefit.”
Additionally, the senator compared Noem to Dolores Umbridge from “Harry Potter,” calling her a “bureaucratic sycophant.”
“She is terrifyingly sweet while she is around those she considers her superiors and she sucks up to authority to gain the power she needs to bully those ‘beneath’ her,” he said.
Tillis has made a marked split from the Republican Senate majority in the last year, after he announced he would not seek reelection in November. He has now become an outspoken critic of the Trump administration and its policies, including recently joining Democrats’ calls for Noem to resign.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has faced mounting scrutiny in recent weeks over the administration’s massive immigration crackdown in Minnesota and immigration enforcement officers’ use of force. Protests spread across the state after two Minneapolis residents — Alex Pretti and Renee Good — were fatally shot by federal agents in two separate incidents earlier this month.
DHS has maintained that the officers were acting in self-defense and Trump officials have blamed Pretti and Good for the incidents, claiming the protesters tried to cause harm to federal immigration authorities.
Democrats, and some Republicans like Tillis, have lashed out at Noem and threatened possible impeachment proceedings. President Trump, however, has stuck behind her and she doubled down on her criticism of the protesters on Friday.
“What [Noem’s] done in Minnesota should be disqualifying. She should be out of a job,” the senator said Monday. “It’s just amateur-ish. It’s terrible. It’s making the president look bad on policy that he won on.”
He included Miller in his earlier critique of the Minnesota operation, saying Trump’s top aide and the DHS chief told the president that Pretti was “a terrorist.” After the ICU nurse was killed last Saturday, Miller also called him a “domestic terrorist” in a post on X.
“That is amateur hour at its worst,” Tillis said.
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