Uncorked: Corker-Trump spat could carry consequences
Retiring senator is crucial to passage of Trump’s agenda
Sen. Bob Corker has never been reluctant to speak his mind during his decade in Congress.
As President Trump learned Sunday, the influential Tennessee Republican who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee can be even more forceful and, at times, downright biting — now that he’s leaving office at the end of next year and unencumbered by the shackles of electoral politics.
“He has always been blunt,” said Kent Syler, a political scientist at Middle Tennessee State University. But “since he’s not running for re-election, he is perhaps more uncorked than in the past.”
Uncorked Corker let loose Sunday against Trump after the president lashed out at him in a series of early morning tweets.
Trump claimed among other things that Corker begged for his endorsement, then decided not to run again when he said no. Corker hit back hard.
“It’s a shame the White House has become an adult day care center,” the senator tweeted. “Someone obviously missed their shift this morning.”
Later Sunday, in an interview with The New York Times, he warned that Trump’s threats to other countries could set the United States “on the path to World War III.” Corker said the former reality show host approaches the presidency as if he were still doing The Apprentice and regularly tweets statements that everyone knows aren’t true.
The public spat between the Republican president and the Republican senator is the latest sign of how much their relationship has worsened since last year,
“Since he’s not running for re-election, (Corker) is perhaps more uncorked than in the past.” Kent Syler, political scientist
when Corker was considered a possible vice presidential running mate for Trump.
It’s also the latest example of the straight-talking approach Corker is taking in his final months in office.
In the two weeks since he announced he won’t run for a third term, Corker has not only feuded with president, he also has proclaimed that three of Trump’s top advisers keep the country from falling into chaos.
Trump is hardly the first president to fight with Congress members of his own party.
Franklin Roosevelt went to war with conservative Southern Democrats and tried hard to oust them during the 1938 election. Lyndon Johnson battled Southern Democrats who tried to stand in the way of civil rights changes. Sen. Howard Baker Jr., R-Tenn., was a central figure in the Watergate investigation that led to resignation of Richard Nixon, also a Republican.
For the most part, historians said, past presidents tried to keep their squabbles with lawmakers from their own party private in the interest of party harmony. Not Trump.
“What’s so striking about this Trump phenomenon to me is how belligerent he is, and how often,” said historian Robert Dallek, who has written books about Roosevelt and other American presidents.
Trump hasn’t even finished his first year in office, and “he is locked in kind of a warfare with these senators,” Dallek said. “He has demonstrated, it seems to me, little, if any, skill in understanding how to manage the Congress. If he can’t get along with his own party leaders in the Senate, how is he going to do it with the Democrats?”
Though Johnson battled with Southern Democrats, “he didn’t blame them for their votes against civil rights,” said Mark Updegrove, former director of the LBJ Presidential Library.
In Trump’s case, he needs Corker more than Corker needs him. Senate Republicans hold a 52-48 majority, so the president can’t afford to lose Corker’s vote on issues such as tax changes and immigration.
Corker is the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee while Trump is trading threats with North Korea. Given his stature, Corker’s willingness to openly question Trump on foreign policy could offer cover for other Republicans who harbor the same doubts about the president but have been unwilling to go public.
Corker’s Tennessee colleague, Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander, came to Corker’s defense.
Syler said Corker’s and Alexander’s push-back is an ominous sign for Trump’s presidency.
“If you want to see how Donald Trump is doing, watch Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander,” Syler said. “They are solid Republicans and not really given to political drama. So they are good gauge for the Trump presidency.”