“Amateur Hour is Over”: GOP Senator Thom Tillis Erupts on Senate Floor, Demanding Firings Over “Stupid” Greenland Proposal

The decorum of the United States Senate is usually a thick blanket, muffling rage and wrapping insults in layers of polite procedure. But on January 7, 2026, that blanket was ripped away by a furious Senator from North Carolina. Thom Tillis, a Republican who has often walked the line of party loyalty, took to the floor not to praise the administration, but to scorch the earth beneath the feet of its senior advisors.

The target of his ire? Stephen Miller, the Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Policy Advisor to the President. The trigger? A comment made on CNN suggesting, once again, that the United States government believes it should acquire Greenland.

For Tillis, this wasn’t just a bad soundbite. It was a diplomatic disaster, a disrespect to a blood-forged ally, and, in his own blunt words, an act of profound stupidity.

“Some people around here call me cranky,” Tillis said, gripping the podium. “You know what makes me cranky? Stupid. What makes me cranky is when people don’t do their homework.”

The “Greenland” Distraction

The idea of buying Greenland—an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark—first surfaced during Donald Trump’s first term, where it was met with a mix of bemusement and diplomatic strain. Its resurgence in 2026, championed by Stephen Miller as a serious policy position of the “US Government,” was the final straw for Tillis, who serves as the Republican leader for the Senate NATO Observer Group.

Tillis dismantled the premise with the precision of a prosecutor. He pointed out the “insane” arrogance of a Deputy Chief of Staff claiming to speak for the entire US government on a matter of territorial expansion.

“He doesn’t speak for the US government,” Tillis corrected sharply. “He speaks for the President… But when he says that the US government thinks that Greenland should be a part of the US, he should talk to people like me who have an election certificate.”

The Senator’s argument was clear: The White House does not rule by decree. If they want to redraw the map of the world, they have to go through the people’s representatives—representatives who are seemingly exhausted by what Tillis called “surreal” and “cute” TV commentary.

Blood and Ice: The Defense of Denmark

However, the most powerful moments of Tillis’s speech were not about constitutional checks and balances, but about honor. While Miller and others in the administration viewed Greenland as a potential real estate asset or a “big aircraft carrier,” Tillis viewed Denmark as a brother-in-arms.

In a move that brought a hush to the chamber, Tillis recited the “blood receipt” of the US-Denmark alliance. He reminded the world that Article 5 of the NATO charter—the pledge that an attack on one is an attack on all—has been invoked only once in history: by our allies to defend the United States after 9/11.

“Denmark was one of NATO’s most disproportionately high contributors in Afghanistan,” Tillis noted, his voice thick with emotion.

He reeled off the statistics that the “amateurs” in the White House had apparently forgotten. Since the war on terror began, 18,000 Danish soldiers deployed to fight alongside American and British forces. They didn’t hide in safe zones. They went to Helmand Province, the heart of the darkness, the most kinetic and dangerous combat zone of the war.

Forty-three Danish soldiers came home in flag-draped coffins.

“On a per capita basis, Denmark suffered over six times the fatality rate of Germany,” Tillis shouted, gesturing to the empty air where Stephen Miller should have been standing. “They fought alongside US Marines defending our freedom.”

To turn around and talk about “taking over” the territory of a nation that sacrificed its sons for American safety wasn’t just bad strategy to Tillis; it was a moral failing. It was a betrayal of the sacred trust between soldiers.

“I’m Sick of Stupid”

The climax of the speech was a direct assault on the competence of the President’s inner circle. Tillis posed a binary scenario, and neither option looked good for the White House.

Either the President came up with the idea and his advisors were too sycophantic to tell him it was a diplomatic nightmare, or the advisors themselves cooked up the scheme because they thought it would be “cool.”

“Well, that’s stupid too,” Tillis deadpanned. “And I’m sick of stupid.”

It is a phrase that is likely to hang over this administration for the foreseeable future. In three short words, Tillis captured the fatigue of a legislature—and perhaps a public—tired of governance by television appearance. He argued that true power projection doesn’t require owning the land; he noted that the US previously had 17 military installations in Greenland and could easily negotiate access again without threatening the sovereignty of a NATO partner.

The Venezuela Contrast

Interestingly, Tillis framed his outburst as a defense of the President’s other work. He alluded to an “extraordinary execution of a mission… in Venezuela,” suggesting that real, tangible foreign policy successes were being overshadowed by these unforced errors.

“This nonsense on what’s going on with Greenland is a distraction from the good work he’s doing,” Tillis pleaded. He wants the President to have a legacy of action, not a legacy of memes and real estate jokes.

But to protect that legacy, Tillis offered a harsh prescription: “The amateurs who said it was a good idea should lose their jobs.”

A Warning Shot

As Senator Tillis gathered his papers and stepped back from the podium, the echo of his words “Amateur hour is over” lingered. This was not a Democrat attacking a Republican President. This was a senior Republican, a man deeply embedded in the national security apparatus, signaling that the patience of the Senate has run out.

For Stephen Miller and the inner circle at the White House, the message was clear: The Senate is watching, and they are done tolerating “stupid.”

The question now remains: Will the President listen to the man with the election certificate, or the man with the cable news slot? If Tillis’s fury is any indication, the time for choosing is running out.