President Donald Trump’s claim that Sen. Bob Corker opted to leave the Senate only after the president refused to endorse him has been repeatedly disputed by the Tennessee Republican’s office. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images Trump and Corker hurl insults as GOP strives for unity The Tennessee Republican offers a prediction: 'I think the debasement of our nation will be what he'll be remembered most for.'

President Donald Trump and Sen. Bob Corker dramatically escalated their feud on Tuesday, with the president accusing Corker of blocking tax reform efforts and the Tennessee Republican warning Trump that his legacy will be the debasement of America.

The nasty exchanges came ahead of a Capitol Hill lunch between Trump and GOP senators to project unity on an ambitious legislative agenda. While the two men generally avoided each other at the meeting, the rebukes still hung in the air.


Corker set off the latest tiff, appearing on all three major broadcast morning news shows to needle the president and to call on him to “step aside” on tax reform.

Trump punched back on Twitter.

“Bob Corker, who helped President O give us the bad Iran Deal & couldn't get elected dog catcher in Tennessee, is now fighting Tax Cuts,” Trump wrote. “Corker dropped out of the race in Tennesse [sic] when I refused to endorse him, and now is only negative on anything Trump. Look at his record!”

Corker quickly responded, lamenting on Twitter the "same untruths from an utterly untruthful president. #AlertTheDaycareStaff." Trump’s claim that Corker opted to leave the Senate only after the president refused to endorse him has been disputed repeatedly by the Tennessee Republican’s office. In fact, it was Trump, Corker’s office has said, who asked the senator to reconsider his retirement.

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The spat escalated from there, and captured the civil war that is plaguing the Republican Party despite the GOP’s control of both the White House and Congress. Trump has sparred at times with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Dean Heller (R-Nev.), among others.

Flake grabbed his own share of the spotlight on Tuesday, announcing that he would not seek reelection in 2018, and delivering a searing speech on the Senate floor in which he railed against Trump.

"Reckless, outrageous, and undignified behavior has become excused and countenanced as 'telling it like it is,' when it is actually just reckless, outrageous, and undignified," Flake said. "And when such behavior emanates from the top of our government, it is something else: It is dangerous to a democracy."

"Mr. President, I rise today to say: Enough," Flake added.

It's yet to be seen, though, if Flake will join Corker, who is also not seeking reelection in 2018, in taking up the mantle of the senator who consistently punches back against the president.

On NBC’s “Today" on Tuesday morning, Corker said, "The best way for us to have a success" on tax reform is for the legislation to be driven by Congress, not the president, a recommendation he said was "based on recent history and just, interactions."

The Tennessee Republican also called Trump’s scheduled lunch with Republican senators on Tuesday little more than a “photo op."

Speaking more broadly about the president in an interview on "CBS This Morning," Corker told anchor Charlie Rose that "it appears to be the governing model of this White House to purposefully divide."

Corker then notched up his rhetoric even further during an interview on CNN, saying Trump will most be remembered for "the debasement of our nation."

"At the end of the day, when his term is over, I think the debasing of our nation, the constant non-truth telling, just the name calling, the things — I think the debasement of our nation will be what he'll be remembered most for, and that's regretful," Corker said.

Asked whether he regrets supporting Trump during last year's election, Corker said, "Let's just put it this way: I would not do that again."

Trump continued the back-and-forth, asking his Twitter followers, "isn't it sad that lightweight Senator Bob Corker, who couldn't get re-elected in the Great State of Tennessee, will now fight Tax Cuts plus!"

In another two-post missive, Trump lobbed more criticism, resurrecting a nickname he pinned to the Tennessee Republican weeks earlier: "Sen. Corker is the incompetent head of the Foreign Relations Committee, & look how poorly the U.S. has done. He doesn't have a clue as the entire World WAS laughing and taking advantage of us. People like liddle' Bob Corker have set the U.S. way back. Now we move forward!"

While the war of words built expectations for a face-to-face clash at Tuesday's lunch, Corker called the meeting "uneventful” and that references to the feud did not come up.

He said on MSNBC that his earlier back-and-forth with the president was "to express concerns about, you know, the conduct and just what it means to America and Americans and what it means to the world. But I don't really have any agenda other than responding again to shots across the bow."

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, too, downplayed the conflict between Corker and Trump, telling reporters Tuesday afternoon that "I don't have any observation about that.” He predicted that Republicans' top priority, tax reform, would be unifying enough to bridge any fractures within the GOP.

The anticlimactic lunch meeting belied a morning of rhetoric from the president's Twitter account that was particularly biting. Corker willingly engaged the president, responding in kind with scathing criticism online and in a flurry of TV news interviews.

While some have feared that Trump's feud with a powerful committee chairman could imperil GOP priorities, including tax reform, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Tuesday that the spat between the two men would not alter Republican policy efforts.

"At the end of the day, I know Bob well. Bob is going to vote for Tennessee, he's going to vote for America, he's going to vote for tax reform," Ryan continued at a news conference with House Republican leaders. "So put this Twitter dispute aside," he said.

The relationship between the two men, which had already been on rocky footing, soured further this month as Corker and Trump have lobbed increasingly barbed criticisms at one another through the media. Amid a separate reported spat between Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in early October, Corker came to the defense of the secretary, telling reporters that Tillerson and other top advisers "help separate the country from chaos."

Trump replied with a Twitter barrage, launching his claim that the senator had opted to retire only once a presidential endorsement had been taken off the table. Trump also said he had rejected Corker as a possible secretary of state and said the senator was "largely responsible for the horrendous Iran Deal!” Corker was quick with a sarcastic retort, writing that "it's a shame the White House has become an adult day care center. Someone obviously missed their shift this morning."

The senator also delivered a scathing review of Trump in an interview with The New York Times, telling the newspaper that the president has behaved “like he’s doing ‘The Apprentice’ or something" and that he could put the U.S. "on the path to World War III."

Corker said on Tuesday morning that he tried being a helpful force to Trump — with little to show for it.

"Many of us, me included, have, you know, tried to, you know — I've intervened, I have had private dinner, you know, been with him on multiple occasions to try to create some kind of aspirational approach, if you will, to the way that he conducts himself, but I don't think that that's possible," Corker said. "He's obviously not going to rise to the occasion as president."

Nolan D. McCaskill and Seung Min Kim contributed to this report.

