Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), emboldened to lash out at President Donald Trump after months of mounting tension, posted a lengthy attack on the president's underlings on X, comparing several of them to villainous literary and cinematic figures.
"A sycophant is more than just a 'yes-man.' It refers to someone who acts excessively servile toward someone important in order to gain an advantage. 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," wrote Tillis, who is retiring at the beginning of next year. "They aren't praising you because they like you; they're doing it because you have something they want. The behavior is over the top fawning, or constant agreement (including when you're wrong)."
Tillis' post, which had some characteristics of being AI-generated, went on to give examples.
"Grima Wormtongue (the Stephen Miller of Lord of the Rings) is an advisor to King Theoden," said the post. "He uses whispers and false flattery to control the King’s decisions, all while secretly serving Saruman. He is a classic example of a sycophant who uses his position to poison a leader's standing for his own benefit."
"Dolores Umbridge (the Kristi Noem of Harry Potter) is an example of a bureaucratic sycophant," the post continued. "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."
The post generated a significant reaction from commenters.
"Tillis is having a fun time now," wrote Eric Michael Garcia of The Independent.
"Solemnly checking off 'a U.S. senator tweeting ‘Dolores Umbridge (the Kristi Noem of Harry Potter)’' on my 2026 bingo card," wrote Axios' Andrew Solender.
"Reminds me of when Bob Corker broke with Trump, and started going off about the White House as an adult day care center..." wrote Susan Glasser of The New Yorker.
"Thom Tillis is very brave now that he’s not running for re-election and many in the Trump administration hate him," wrote Yashar Ali of HuffPost.
Other users, however, were critical of Tillis not calling out Trump by name and pointed out that he has been a willing participant in all this until very recently.
One user asked the Grok AI chatbot, "If Kristi Noem is Dolores Umbridge, and Trump is Voldemort... what Harry Potter character would Thom Tillis be? (being an supporter and enabler of the current regimen who just recently decided to grow a little bit of a spine?)" Grok replied, "Based on that analogy, Thom Tillis could be Percy Weasley — the ambitious Ministry loyalist who supported the establishment, even against his better instincts, but eventually admitted his mistakes and joined the fight against Voldemort."
