The following is the transcript of the interview with Sen. Thom Tillis, Republican of North Carolina, that aired on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Feb. 15, 2026.
ED O’KEEFE: We’re joined now by Sen. Thom Tillis from the Munich Security Conference in Germany. Senator, good to see you. Good morning. Thank you for taking a few minutes to be with us. A report that was published this week–
SENATOR THOM TILLIS: Thank you
ED O’KEEFE: –by the Munich Security Conference describes leaders who are taking an ax to existing rules and institutions, and says the era in which Europe could rely on the U.S. as an unquestioned security guarantor is over. You think that’s a fair assessment. Is the U.S. no longer a reliable partner to Europe?
SEN. TILLIS: Well, you know, in some ways, I hope that we’re going to enter an era where our reliance on Europe is improved. Look, I’ve got a challenge with some of the things coming out of the White House, but a lot of that frustration comes from a $2 trillion shortfall in investing in our mutual defense by far too many NATO Allies. Now, they’re- they’re making right now, but you have to give the administration and the president some latitude to point to the fact that a $2 trillion dollar shortfall over two decades- what has that done to our readiness? What has that done to our innovation? What’s that done to our military industrial base and manufacturing capacity? You know, we could be scaling up latent capabilities that would have been serving that $2 trillion to better serve Ukraine and better modernize their own weapons. So let’s make sure that people look at this with balance and understand that a part of the reason why we are where we are is because we had that deficit in the 20 years, in the first 20 years of this century. Now, the NATO alliance is the most important alliance in the history of mankind, and the- and the Article I branch, Congress, believes that, and they believe it in large numbers. So we’re going to commit- I’m here in Munich to basically remind everybody that we have three coequal branches of government. The president is trying to get our NATO allies to perform more strongly and have some level of independence, but the Congress has their back.
ED O’KEEFE: Yeah. So when the defense secretary sends the Pentagon’s number three to a NATO defense meeting this week and tells the rest of the alliance, the U.S.’s support for NATO will continue, but quote ‘in a more limited and focused fashion,’ is that the message that Europe should be receiving right now? Is that the way the administration should approach it?
SEN. TILLIS: I would not have used those words. I think what we want to do is be stronger and represent the deterrent capabilities of our alliance. The United States could possibly go it alone. But the reality is, our alliance is what makes us the world’s superpower, what keeps this world safer. We’re going to have malign actors for the- for- we’ve had them throughout history. We will continue to. Putin is a liar and a murderer. He should be expelled from Ukraine. I’ll accept a peace agreement if Volodymyr Zelenskyy wants one, but we need to make sure that our adversaries, unless they change profoundly, are viewed as adversaries that we have to coexist with but not appease. At the same time, Europe needs to step up, not let this be episodic, that they’re now starting to contribute to their mutual defense, their own capabilities, incidentally. It’s not like they’re writing a check and send it to the U.S. This is building up their capabilities, their interoperability, their ability to work with NATO allies if a conflict occurs. So, you know, it’s an emotional time. I’ve got a philosophy that nothing is ever as good as- bad as it seems. I think people coming to Munich, thinking that this is the end of NATO, are being a bit alarmist and that we just need to get things right and learn from the past mistakes of our allies, or- or learn from the past mistakes of people who have come up short. But the rhetoric about NATO somehow being a second tier sort of alliance going forward is- is clearly being spoken by somebody who doesn’t really understand the brilliance and the power of the NATO alliance.
ED O’KEEFE: On NATO, one of the things the alliance announced in recent days is this plan for a new Arctic Sentry mission to strengthen security across the Arctic region. The decision, of course, comes in the wake of the president in the last few weeks urging NATO to do more for Arctic security, dropping his threats of military invasion of Greenland. Is this new operation exactly what you’re talking about, what you want to see the alliance doing? And is it also the answer to the president’s concerns about Greenland?
SEN. TILLIS: Well, you know, we talked in Davos. The reality is, to me, it was irresponsible to go anywhere other than figuring out how we modernize the 1951 agreement, where Greenland and Denmark agreed to more or less give us unfettered access in Greenland to project power in the Arctic. So now let’s that- now that the temperatures have cooled, show a little bit of respect to Denmark and to Greenland. Figure out what part of Greenland- we need to up fit our space base, the only- the only instance of military- or U.S. presence in Greenland now to the north. Take a look at a base that they offered to us for a dollar and come up with a fiscally sound, sustainable way to project power in the east by working with Canada and their icebreakers, which are necessary for us to navigate there, working with Denmark and our Scandinavian and- and Arctic allies to really project the kind of power we need to defer- deter China and Russia.
ED O’KEEFE: The German chancellor, at the start of this conference, suggested that the world order as we know it is over. I know you were talking about hyperbole there at the start of this. Do- would you agree, though, with the chancellor that things are changing that rapidly?
SEN. TILLIS: Only if the chancellor allows it to. Look, if- if- if the NATO countries, who came up short for decades, would just admit that that was a mistake and then double their- redouble their efforts, I think that this goes just like the hyperbolic language around Greenland is now almost- it’s unbelievable that was only three weeks ago. But it’s almost in the distant past. I think we have to look ahead and recognize that the American people, the American Congress, and I believe, the administration is behind it, but they’re not wrong to point out the deficiencies of the past. Look, I’ve been in meetings where people talk about some of our social programs, and how we should really step up with the European world, and then at the same time, they’re funding some of those programs at the expense of their own defense. So let’s just have an honest discussion with family members and get the family right.
ED O’KEEFE: Let’s work through a few other issues here. European leaders this week also suggested that they’re not taking retaliatory tariffs off the table. Back here at home, the House voted to essentially reject the president’s tariffs on Canada, after a bunch of Republicans joined with Democrats to make that happen in the House. If that ever comes up in the Senate, are you someone who would agree with that, that the tariffs against Canada should be stripped away?
SEN. TILLIS: Well, I’ve- I’ve looked at- what I think we need to do is get the USMCA modernization the agreement on the table and address that in the context of strengthening our relationship with Canada and Mexico. Look, we’re a very important trading bloc, and we should build on our successes. As I’m sure you know, a lot of the tariffs, there’s a lot of exemptions because of the existence of USMCA. I think we ought to get in a room and sort them out. I’ve had- I’ve expressed publicly concerns with a lot of the tariffs that were imposed. I still, to this day, can’t figure out why we have a 50% tariff on Brazil when we have a trade surplus with Brazil. Those sorts of things are irrational to me. In other cases, I can justify it based on past behaviors of countries that we have a deficit with, but we need to be surgical and not use a blunt force object–
ED O’KEEFE: –Sure–
SEN TILLIS: –to negotiate trade relationships, particularly with China and Mexico, or, I’m sorry, with Canada and Mexico.
ED O’KEEFE: Should your party be distancing itself more from the president though on tariffs, especially the closer it gets to November, when the American public is not necessarily a fan of these moves?
SEN. TILLIS: See, I don’t think it’s a matter of distancing ourselves. That’s what’s wrong with Washington. We’ve gotten into this mode now to where we have some sort of a loyalty or fealty test, because we either disagree. Oftentimes, it’s not even the what, it’s the how. I do think the what of holding countries that have- we have had chronic trade deficits with accountable is necessary, and if tariffs are required to get their attention, fine. But the how is a very surgical approach, not a blanket approach, not one that actually creates froth and uncertainty because that’s not good for business and the U.S., if anything else, is really good when we’re at our best on certainty.
ED O’KEEFE: You reiterated this week, you’re going to block any confirmation hearings for a new Federal Reserve chairman or board member until the Justice Department’s investigation into Jerome Powell is, as you put it, resolved. But will there be confirmation hearings for Kevin Warsh, even if this DOG investigation- DOJ investigation into Powell is continuing?
SEN. TILLIS: Well, let’s make the distinction between a- a confirmation hearing and then a confirmation markup. Mr. Walsh [sic] is going to have to decide whether or not he wants to go through with this, because, as I’m sure you know, once the nominee is put forward, there are certain restrictions on what he can do in his- in his business life. But I’ve tried to make it very clear that I have no intention of supporting any confirmation of any Fed board member, chair or otherwise, to fill the Kugler seat, for example, until this is resolved. I think we had a young U.S. attorney with a dream trying to get the president’s attention, not even consulting with the administration and big DOJ on something that maybe they thought they’d get brownie points for. It’s not cute. And if this is only about two minutes of- of discussion that came before Chair Powell, that prosecutor should listen to the seven members, Republican members, who said they didn’t see any criminal intent or activity. And- and more importantly, the prosecutor should understand that the protocol normally would be a referral from the chair or a member of the committee to say, we think a crime was committed here. We’ve got a crime scene where seven Republican members say no crime was committed. How hard is that to understand?
ED O’KEEFE: But when the treasury secretary said Friday, there’s a deal to at least hold confirmation hearings for Kevin Warsh to serve as the next chairman of the Federal Reserve. Is he misguided on that?
SEN. TILLIS: Well, that’s not a deal. That’s a decision that the- that the chair makes unilaterally in his capacity as chair. The decision I get to make is whether or not I allow a markup, and if I do allow a markup, how I vote. And I’m saying that until the matter is solved, I’m a no.
ED O’KEEFE: Understood, and when you say resolved, when you want this investigation resolved, does that mean everything dropped by the Justice Department and other entities?
SEN. TILLIS: Well, keep in mind, everything is an investigation about two minutes of commentary.
ED O’KEEFE: Right.
SEN. TILLIS: Even for this guy, that’s not hard to figure out.
ED O’KEEFE: You have been quite critical of the administration on a suite of issues, whether it’s tariffs, how it’s engaging Europe, as you mentioned earlier, concerns about homeland security and whatnot, and you’ve said that it runs the risk of hurting your party going into November. So I’m curious, if the elections were held today, would Republicans hold on to the House and the Senate?
SEN. TILLIS: I think that we hold on to the Senate. I have questions about the House, and some of that comes from what I believe may have been a little bit of overreach with respect to- to redistricting. Plus, you have the historic challenge of a midterm election after a presidential election, a lot of complexities in it. But I- you know, we’ve got work to do. And again, my beef almost always relates to what I consider to be how things are being done. And I think the president has some advisers around him. You’ve heard me talk about Stephen Miller, you know my opinion about Kristi Noem. These are people that don’t look around corners and are not taking care of this president’s legacy, and I intend to. And if I have to speak bluntly, that’s what I’m going to do in my remaining time in the Senate.
ED O’KEEFE: Well, we appreciate you speaking bluntly with us this morning from the Munich Security Conference. Senator Tillis, thank you for your time.
SEN. TILLIS: Thank you.
ED O’KEEFE: And we’ll be right back.
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