Speaking Tuesday on The Alex Marlow Show, which has steadily risen in popularity on the Apple Podcast charts — and recently passed California Gov. Gavin Newsom's show, The Is Gavin Newsom, as of early Tuesday morning — Lara blasted Tillis as "RINO-esque."

The North Carolina senator declared on Sunday that he would not run for reelection, just a day after the president threatened to support a primary challenger against him for denouncing the Republicans' "Big Beautiful Bill."

"I know he wasn't ever like a hardcore MAGA guy, but he's been really just shooting blanks this whole first six months" of Trump's second term, Marlow said, before highlighting Tillis's opposition to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Ed Martin, Trump's nominee to serve as interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. 

While Tillis was eventually convinced to cast the deciding vote to confirm Hegseth's nomination, he stood firm on Martin, leaving Martin without the support he needed to retain the position permanently.

"He is a terrific person. He wasn't getting the support," President Trump said of Martin in early May. "I'm very disappointed in that."

According to Lara, wife of Eric Trump and host of the The Right View podcast and the Fox News show My View with Lara Trump, Tillis seems "very establishment-y."

"A lot of people now who are representatives of the Republican Party in the House and the Senate, I think are very MAGA, you know, they're America First patriots. They are supportive of what President Trump wants to do," she told Marlow, before adding, "It kind of seems like he wants to be that guy who, you know, sides a lot of times with the Democrats — which doesn't make a lot of sense."

"It's very RINO-esque," she continued, referring to Tillis as a "Republican In Name Only." 

Lara added that the senator's opposition to Trump's goals is getting "old and tired."

Citing the fact that Trump won North Carolina all three times he ran for president, she argued that whoever represents those constituents in Congress should "be on board" with his nominations and other goals. 

"But it kind of seems like he wants to go against the grain, just to say he's going against the grain," Lara said, before sharing her hope for an "America First, MAGA patriot" to take Tillis's spot in November 2026.