Top Republican senator: US on course for World War III with Trump at helm
WASHINGTON — A top Republican lawmaker warned Sunday that US President Donald J. Trump’s impulsive threats against other countries could set America “on the path to World War III,” in comments capping an unusually hostile and public feud between the pair on social media.
Bob Corker, who chairs the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, slammed the president for running his office like a “reality show” in a stinging rebuke against a sitting president of his own party that was remarkable even by the volatile standards of the Trump administration.
The public spat between the former allies could also undermine Mr. Trump’s legislative agenda, with Mr. Corker’s vote vital to the fate of the Iran nuclear deal and passing tax reform.
“He concerns me,” Mr. Corker told The New York Times, adding: “He would have to concern anyone who cares about our nation.”
The drama erupted in the morning, when Mr. Trump tweeted that Mr. Corker had decided against running for reelection because he lacked the “guts,” and the senator replying that the White House had become an “adult daycare center.”
The highly unusual exchange came seemingly out of nowhere on a rainy Sunday morning that Mr. Trump began in the White House before skies cleared and he headed to a nearby golf course.
Mr. Corker, a respected moderate who once supported Mr. Trump, has emerged in recent months as one of the president’s most outspoken Republican critics.
He recently said that only the presence of the generals in Mr. Trump’s inner circle had kept the White House from descending into “chaos.”
Mr. Trump made no mention of that remark in his volley of tweets, instead attacking Mr. Corker for his decision to return to private life, saying that the Tennessee Republican bore heavy responsibility for what Mr. Trump considers the deeply flawed nuclear deal with Iran.
“Senator Bob Corker ‘ begged’ me to endorse him for reelection in Tennessee. I said ‘NO’ and he dropped out ( said he could not win without my endorsement),” Mr. Trump wrote in a series of tweets. —