Senator Bob Corker, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, charged in an interview on Sunday that President Trump was treating his office like a reality show, with reckless threats toward other countries that could set the nation on the path to World War III.
In an extraordinary rebuke of a president of his own party, Mr. Corker said he was alarmed about a president who acts like hes doing The Apprentice or something.
He concerns me, Mr. Corker added. He would have to concern anyone who cares about our nation.
The senator, Mr. Trump said, had begged for his endorsement. I said NO and he dropped out (said he could not win without my endorsement), the president wrote. He also said that Mr. Corker had asked to be secretary of state. I said NO THANKS, he wrote.
Mr. Corker flatly disputed that account, saying Mr. Trump had urged him to run again, and promised to endorse him if he did. But the exchange laid bare a deeper rift: The senator views Mr. Trump as given to irresponsible outbursts a political novice who has failed to make the transition from show business.
Mr. Trump poses such an acute risk, the senator said, that a coterie of senior administration officials must protect him from his own instincts. I know for a fact that every single day at the White House, its a situation of trying to contain him, Mr. Corker said in a telephone interview.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/08/us/politics/trump-corker.htmlAll but inviting his colleagues to join him in speaking out about the president, Mr. Corker said his concerns about Mr. Trump were shared by nearly every Senate Republican.
Look, except for a few people, the vast majority of our caucus understands what were dealing with here, he said, adding that of course they understand the volatility that were dealing with and the tremendous amount of work that it takes by people around him to keep him in the middle of the road.
As for the tweets that set off the feud on Sunday morning, Mr. Corker expressed a measure of powerlessness.
I dont know why the president tweets out things that are not true, he said. You know he does it, everyone knows he does it, but he does.