Ilić had a large role in the overthrow of Slobodan Milošević as he organized and headed a long motorcade of cars, buses and trucks that left Čačak on the morning of October 5, 2000 and arrived in Belgrade after going through (often forcefully) numerous police road blocks and check points along the way.

Ilić and his men then positioned themselves right in front of the Federal Assembly building, addressed the crowd, which was already gathered in hundreds of thousands, and eventually led the charge on Parliament.

In comparison, many other leaders of small parties within DOS that had considerably lesser profile than NS and Ilić, like Vladan Batić, Dušan Mihajlović, Goran Svilanović, Nebojša Čović, Rasim Ljajić, Žarko Korać, Dragan Veselinov, József Kasza, Mile Isakov, etc., all received high posts.

Since he didn't have a national platform through a high-ranking government position, Ilić was seldom featured in the media for anything other than his frequent outburst or spats with reporters.

In late 2003 after dissolution of Serbia's parliament in anticipation of new elections, he reached out to his old friend Vuk Drašković (also a political non-factor at this point) and their parties entered a pre-election coalition.

On 28 March 2001, taking a reporter's question/insinuation about being behind an incident at Čačak's Radio Ozon that saw the station's windows shattered by a group of unknown attackers, Ilić denied involvement by answering: "We're not some petty Gypsies.

[1] Ilić's best known public outburst occurred during a summer 2002 live phone-in on the Studio B radio station while being asked about road blocks that Serb refugees from Kosovo had supposedly set up in protest throughout different parts of the country.

Upon hearing this, Ilić began his verbal tirade: "Listen to me now, Nebojša Čović is a communist piece of garbage and a Belgrade scumbag and you're free to quote me on that anywhere you want.

Ilić ended his outburst by blasting Studio B TV journalist Olja Bećković, calling her "a jerkoff" and adding "If she was better looking, I'd let her suck me off, but she's way too ugly".

[2] On 11 October 2002, as part of their call-in show Naslovna strana TV Čačak ran a story by journalist Jelena Katanić alleging that recently slain mobster Sredoje Šljukić was a member of Ilić's New Serbia.

The very next day, accompanied by his personal security, he barged into the TV station's offices and shouted some more at journalists Jelena Katanić and Vesna Radović who happened to be present.

[2][3] After getting appointed Serbia's Minister of Capital Investment in March 2004, Ilić somewhat cleaned up his act, though still causing plenty of public image problems for the cabinet he represented.

In August 2005, dissatisfied with the question posed to him, Capital Investment Minister Ilić verbally assaulted a B92 journalist calling her "mentally disturbed" and threatening to kill her and her editor.

[4] Ilić called Bojan Kostreš, President of the Assembly of Vojvodina a "sect member, drug addict, and separatist" in a TV interview on September 6, 2007.