'He's a maggot': GOP senator's anti-MAGA book ripped after he caves to Trump

A former Republican operative slammed a GOP leader's planned tell-all and the idea that it would do anything by targeting Trump.

During an episode of The Jim Acosta Show, Steve Schmidt discussed the GOP's failure to stand up to President Donald Trump as they moved to confirm Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. Schmidt brought up that Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) is planning to write a book that goes after the Trump administration, and said it would be meaningless as long as Republicans like Tillis fall in line behind Trump's Justice Department.

"When there are people like Thom Tillis, who says he's going to write a book, exposing the degeneracy of the MAGA insiders, MAGATs he calls them. He's a maggot," Schmidt said. "He's on their team. He showers with Stephen Miller. What doesn't Thom Tillis understand about that? He scratches his back. They share a towel."

Schmidt explained that his problem with Blanche is that he, former Attorney General Pam Bondi, and former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem "weaponized federal law enforcement agencies against the American people, have made it routine to harass, to prosecute and try to lock up innocent people in the United States in 2026."

For Schmidt, not only is that "disqualifying conduct" for someone who wants to be associated with the Department of Justice, but "that it would be tolerated by any United States Senator in any party for any reason is inexcusable."

Acosta agreed with Schmidt's attack on Tillis' book that's supposed to take on MAGA and the Trump administration. "He totally, totally chickened out," Acosta said about Tillis. "It's disgraceful."

Schmidt brought up a Nazi general named Dietrich von Choltitz, who refused Hitler's orders to burn Paris down. "Choltitz was no hero," Schmidt said. "He was a committed Nazi. In the end, he denounced the Nazis, talked about how they hypnotized everybody. He went along, and he was no hero."

Tying it back to Blanche and Tillis, Schmidt said, "There are some people that are not going to be heroes in this, but are going to make it stop. Thom Tillis is not one of those people."