'Stupid' advisers are lining up Trump for 'most miserable two years' of life: GOP senator

If Donald Trump doesn’t make radical changes to his inner circle soon, he will be trapped in a living hell during the last two years of his administration.

That is the opinion of Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), given in a surprisingly candid interview with Politico in which he revealed he has a better relationship with the president than it appears on the surface.

Speaking with Politico’s Jordain Carney, Tillis said he wants Trump to succeed at pushing forward conservative principles, but that his close aides are undermining him with poor advice — setting the president up for a fall.

In particular, the North Carolina Republican, who is retiring, pointed the finger at Trump insider Stephen Miller and former Fox News personality turned Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

“You’ve mentioned Stephen Miller by name before but are there other advisers that you are thinking of?” he was asked.

“I think Hegseth misinformed him on the challenges [of Iran]," he responded. "I suspect that Hegseth cast aside concerns he was hearing from some of the finest people that ever served in uniform and took his cowboy-ish approach to going into Iran. I’m glad the president did what he did in Iran. I’m not glad that he has Hegseth advising him on the details.

“I think Hegseth is largely responsible for why we’re in this, ‘Are we in a war? Are we not in a war? Are we in a cease-fire? Are we not in a cease-fire? Do we have a deal? Do we not have a deal? Are they going to have nuclear capabilities? Are they not going to?’ All of that I’ll lay at the feet of Pete Hegseth and his incompetence.”

He added, “I’d love to see Pete Hegseth fired because he’s incompetent and doing a horrible job. That’s kind of on a Christmas wish list, but what I mainly want to do is get Republicans reelected in November, including bringing them back a majority in the House.”

Then he went on to lambast others in Trump's inner circle for their approach to the upcoming midterms.

“I believe that there are people in the White House who couldn’t care less about what happens in November, and that goes to show you how stupid they are,” he said.

“Because if they don’t get Republicans reelected, they’re going to create the most miserable two years of this president’s life, beginning in 2027. And they will just surf on to something else, saying, ‘Sorry, boss, didn’t see that coming,’ and they’ll just surf off to somebody else to be a parasite on in the future in their little political roles without any accountability whatsoever.”