Senator Thom Tillis Is Blocking a Key Trump Nominee - Why? (Updated)

Update - 11:10 a.m. Eastern:

Tillis has now made it official — he's told the White House that he won't support Martin's nomination.

Tillis after meeting with Ed Martin last night:

“At this point I’ve indicated to the White House I wouldn't support his nomination.” pic.twitter.com/T1OSqSabOn
— Alan He (@alanhe) May 6, 2025

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), a key vote on the Senate Judiciary Committee, says he will not support Ed Martin’s nomination to serve as U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, citing his concerns over Martin’s advocacy for people who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
...
“If Mr. Martin were being put forth as a U.S. attorney for any district except the district where Jan. 6 happened, the protest happened, I’d probably support him, but not in this district,” Tillis told reporters Tuesday.
“At this point, I’ve indicated to the White House I wouldn’t support his nomination,” Tillis said.

It's unclear at the moment what the administration's next move will be. We'll continue to follow the story and report on any further developments.

Original article:

One of President Trump's key outstanding appointments is the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, which is, as you may well guess, a critical position. President Trump appointed Ed Martin as the interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia on January 20 and has nominated him for confirmation to hold that role in the long term.

But there's a stumbling block - a Republican stumbling block. Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) is sticking his oar in the water to block Martin's confirmation.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) is withholding support for President Donald Trump’s nominee for U.S. Attorney for D.C., a move that could result in MAGA villain Judge James Boasberg choosing who would fill the role — potentially even former Special Counsel Jack Smith.
Trump, who announced in December 2024 that Ed Martin would serve as Chief of Staff at the Office of Management and Budget, installed Martin as interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia on January 20, 2025, later formally nominating him to take over long-term.
But Martin’s interim tag expires May 19, 2025. And due to D.C.’s unusual status within the federal government, the choice of who would fill the position could fall to U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), Charlie Kirk, and other prominent conservatives supporting Martin’s nomination have warned.
Martin’s defeat would deal a blow to critical components of Trump’s agenda.

That last is something of an understatement. Allowing the irrationally Trump-hating Judge Boasberg to appoint Martin's replacement would likely unleash another wave of lawfare at the president. The last thing that is needed now, with a narrow GOP majority in both houses of Congress making the enactment of the president's agenda a near-run thing, is the appointment of a hostile U.S. Attorney in the nation's capital.

This isn't Senator Tillis's first flirtation with scuppering a Trump nominee. He made noises about the nomination of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth as well.

WSJ Outs Senator Thom Tillis As the Guy Behind Hegseth's Ex-Sister-in-Law's Last Minute Hit on Him

Senator Tillis's colleague, Mike Lee (R-UT), took to X to encourage Martin's confirmation, and Republican activist Charlie Kirk chimed in:

Do you want Judge Boasberg choosing Ed Martin’s replacement?

If not, encourage your senators to confirm Ed Martin https://t.co/VOLVZ7UwSe
— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) May 4, 2025

🚨 IMPORTANT 🚨

If Ed Martin, acting US Attorney of DC is not confirmed by the Senate Republicans before May 20th, radical Judge Boasberg gets to choose his replacement

If the Senate GOP doesn’t confirm Ed in the next two weeks, we will have a Trump hating US Attorney in the…
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) May 4, 2025

Breitbart News spoke to a Tillis spokesman, who seemed to be trying to back away from the Senator being outright hostile to the Martin nomination:

“Senator Tillis looks forward to meeting with Ed Martin,” the spokesman said. “Our understanding is that if the Senate does not confirm a U.S. Attorney before an acting U.S. Attorney’s term expires, the Attorney General can still pick the next acting replacement if it is done before the term expires under 28 USC 546.”

That's a dodge if there ever was one.

Could Senator Tillis be trying to ensure his re-election here? North Carolina's electoral votes went for President Trump in the last two elections, so it would seem that Tillis would be a reasonably safe bet for re-election when he comes up in 2026. If anything could harm his chances, it would be opposition to an agenda that was just confirmed by a ringing presidential victory.

We should note that, in the Hegseth nomination, Senator Tillis did, in the end, vote to confirm Pete Hegseth. That may well be the case again here. But this prevarication, this apparent angling for attention, is unseemly. Granted, keeping Republicans all aligned is a lot like herding cats, as opposed to the more collectively-minded Democrats. But there's a time and a place for grandstanding, Senator Tillis, and this ain't it.

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