“Another one bites the dust,” goes the popular Queen song, which might have been written for recent news in Trumpworld. I refer to Sen. Thom Tillis, the Republican senator from North Carolina, who, in the wake of a virtual assault by Donald Trump, announced that he won’t seek reelection next year.

Thus, Tillis joins a lengthening line of dropouts or, as the presiding party prefers, RINOs — Republicans in Name Only — who have left public office during the years since Trump first became president rather than be forced to breathe the sulfurous vapors emanating from Pennsylvania Avenue and seeping into congressional offices. Among other considerations for Tillis was Trump’s promise to seek revenge through a primary challenger as recompense for Tillis’s “betrayal” in withholding his vote for Trump’s massive tax and immigration bill, which the House of Representatives passed on Thursday afternoon.

In a statement to reporters, Tillis said: “In Washington over the last few years, it’s become increasingly evident that leaders who are willing to embrace bipartisanship, compromise and demonstrate independent thinking are becoming an endangered species.” That’s a polite way of saying America is doomed. So much for the balance of power.

It’s hard to miss the irony, if you’re in the mood, of the chainsaw-wielding, empathy-deficient Elon Musk, richest man in the world, slashing government programs while a man such as Tillis, who moved out of his family’s trailer at 16 to get a job, is run out of town for caring about his state’s poor.

Such are Trump’s priorities, in a nutshell. “Screw the poor” is the leitmotif running through this “moral abomination,” as Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut) recently described the proposed legislation. Thanks to tax cuts that benefit the wealthy — and notwithstanding the firing of thousands of federal employees when Musk and Trump were still bromancing — an estimated 17 million people could lose health insurance under the megabill.

In plain terms, this legislation translates to a loss of health care — and food subsidies — for tens of thousands if not millions of children. And to think that evangelical America claims God chose Trump to lead the country and, presumably, the world. By now, surely, we should stop saying America is a Christian nation. Jesus Christ and the religion he inspired are all about helping the poor, the meek, the hungry, the homeless.

If Republicans are representing themselves as Christians while cutting essential aid to the neediest among us, then we might infer that they’re all going to hell. Trump is no more Christian than he is a Republican. Yes, this is a man who sells Bibles engraved with his own name at the top and “God Bless America” on the cover ($99.99 on eBay). Hypocrite, have thee no shame? I’d be willing to wager that Trump hasn’t read so much as a Psalm, much less a book he seems to think he co-authored. Trump famously doesn’t read much of anything. He makes Sarah Palin look like Jane Austen.

Trump isn’t just a Bible-thumping sideshow barker pitching gospel and perfumes. He also peddles fake news, false motives and packs of lies, notably that he wants to help the working class while decreasing the federal deficit. Perhaps he meant bigger Christmas bonuses for his Latino landscaping crews and golf caddies because the Congressional Budget Office found that his bill would add roughly $3.3 trillion to the national debt over 10 years.

Thanks to Vice President JD Vance’s tiebreaking vote, the Republican-controlled Senate embraced the rich and shafted the poor. (Not to be outdone, the GOP-led House did the same with its Thursday vote, though much more quickly.)

We can surmise that at least the three Senate Republicans who voted against the bill, including Tillis, had hoped that the House would reject the Senate version. The other two senators demonstrating possession of a spine were Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky. Collins plans to seek reelection next year, but with a recent unfavorable rating of 57%, and just 29% of Republicans viewing her favorably, she isn’t a shoo-in. Paul isn’t up for reelection until 2028.

Tillis’s legacy, meanwhile, might well be that a Democrat fills his seat. Though North Carolina is a swing state that went for Trump in 2024 by a slight margin, voters are split almost evenly between the two major parties. The largest group of voters, at 38%, is unaffiliated. By November 2026, given the accelerating pace of crazy, there’s no telling which direction the political winds might blow — or who next might bite the dust.

Kathleen Parker’s email address is kathleenparker@washpost.com.