President Donald Trump is rallying in Greenville, North Carolina, on Tuesday, campaigning for Republican Senate nominee Michael Whatley, who is running for the seat of retiring GOP Senator Thom Tillis. The rally comes as Tillis has warned that Republicans are heading for a midterm “train wreck.” In a new interview with Politico, the retiring two-term Senator said Republicans could lose the House and face a difficult fight to retain their majority in the upper chamber. Tillis said he has even marked the countdown to the November 3 election on his phone with the blunt label of “Whoop Ass,” as he warned Republicans face a voter rebuke if the party fails to recognize the political risks of their current approach.' The president's visit to North Carolina comes as he has campaigned in a number of battlegrounds, attempting to build support for GOP candidates like Whatley, who is facing former Democratic Governor Roy Cooper in one of the most closely watched contests of the 2026 midterms.
Republicans are hoping to rally enough support to stave off a blue wave as Democrats push to take control of both chambers of Congress for the remaining two years of Trump's White House term. Democrats see North Carolina as a top opportunity to gain a seat. They need to defend all of their seats and flip four Republican seats to take control of the Senate.
Trump is scheduled to deliver remarks at 7 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday at Pitt-Greenville Airport in Greenville, according to the Republican Party's event announcement. Newsweek has reached out to the White House for comment.
North Carolina is a critical battleground for both parties. It last elected a Democrat to Senate in 2008, but Cooper has proven popular and served two terms as governor. Trump has endorsed Whatley, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee, as the Republican nominee.
The race has become increasingly challenging for the GOP, with Cooper seeking to turn the contest into a referendum on the president's record and the direction of his administration. A recent WRAL/WSOC poll reported Cooper leading Whatley 54 percent to 40 percent among likely voters, with 5 percent undecided. Tillis questioned the GOP's choice of Senate nominee in North Carolina, arguing that Whatley's background as a former state Republican Party chairman and RNC chairman could make it harder for him to appeal to unaffiliated voters.
The party has also begun pulling funds out of the race, with Republican Senate Leadership Fund spending originally intended to support Whatley now being redirected to other contests. In the interview, Tillis said Trump has been poorly served by advisers and top officials, singling out Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Health Secretary Robert F. The retiring senator acknowledged that the president often acted autonomously with some controversial decisions, but argued that firing his advisers "will change his behavior because you can’t possibly think that every single idea is his coming out of this administration." "He’s going to be whoever he is.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
