Toya Sarno Jordan/Getty Images

Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker raised deep concerns that Trump is trying to “tear down” NATO and “punch our friends in the nose.”

While he said he supports the notion of getting NATO countries to pay more, he told CNN that Trump’s rhetoric is “damaging to us.”

“Sometimes the rhetoric to me is just damaging to us — and damaging to others unnecessarily ... But I think there are ways of communicating with our friends ... And sometimes it feels like we punch our friends in the nose and hold our hand out to people who are working strongly against us like Putin and Russia.”

Asked if Trump is damaging the US around the world, Corker said: “It’s palpable the concern people have as to our reliability ... I believe that America’s leadership around the world has made the world safer for Americans and has made the world a better place ... And when I see that leadership, uh, diminishing, and us trying to break apart alliances that we created, it troubles me."