Senator, who is retiring, has become a vocal critic of Donald Trump in interviews and on social media, as the two fight over proposed tax cuts

A policy lunch with Republican senators was overshadowed by a bitter feud between Donald Trump and Senator Bob Corker, who escalated his criticism on Tuesday morning, accusing the president of “debasing” the country with “untruths” and “name-calling”.

The lunch was meant to be a unifying moment for Republicans to rally around tax reform, but the war of words between Trump and Corker instead revealed the deep fault lines that exist between some elements of the party and the president.

“You would think he would aspire to be the president of the United States and act like a president of the United States. But that’s just not going to be the case, apparently,” Corker told reporters ahead of Trump’s arrival on Capitol Hill.

Trump arrived on Capitol Hill just after 1pm, where he was greeted by the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, with whom Trump has also quarreled. As the men walked to the policy lunch, a protester tossed a fistful of small Russian flags at the president and shouted “Trump is treason”.

Despite the fiery rhetoric between Trump and Corker going into the meeting, several senators said their tussle did not arise during the discussion, which focused on taxes, trade and judicial nominees as members dined on meatloaf and cherry pie.

Leaving the meeting, Corker told reporters: “I ate my lunch like I normally do at policy. I normally don’t speak much at policy. It was a normal day.”

McConnell declined to weigh in on their ongoing quarrel but said the president and the party are united behind their shared goal of overhauling the US tax code.

“If there’s any thing all Republicans think is important to the country and to our party it’s comprehensive tax reform. The issue brings about great unity among our members,” McConnell said at a news conference after the policy lunch. “The president shares that agenda and is going to do a good job promoting that agenda, and we intend to achieve what we set out to achieve by the end of the year.”

But in the hours prior, a war of words with the president played out across Twitter and cable TV but was left out of the policy lunch.



Corker, the chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee, said world leaders were “very aware” that much of what Trump said “is untrue”. The president, he told CNN, was “debasing our nation” and “has great difficulty with the truth on many issues”.

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The Tennessee Republican – who is retiring and has said “the most important public service I have to offer our country could well occur over the next 15 months” – said the Trump was “obviously not going to rise to the occasion as president”.

His presidential tenure will be remembered, Corker says, for “the debasing of our nation, the constant non-truth-telling, the name-calling. It’s very sad for our nation.”

After Corker went on NBC’s Today on Tuesday and said Trump’s White House should let Congress decide how to pay for his tax cuts, Trump fired back with the first of a series of tweets, writing that Corker “couldn’t get elected dog-catcher in Tennessee”.

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Corker responded on social media himself, tweeting: “Same untruths from an utterly untruthful president. #AlertTheDaycareStaff.”

That was a reference to a comment he made earlier this month, when he noted: “It’s a shame the White House has become an adult daycare center. Someone obviously missed their shift this morning.”

Corker was considered for both vice-president and secretary of state and was a key Trump ally during much of the 2016 campaign. He has since become a vocal critic, claiming Trump could be setting the nation on a path to a third world war.

Trump has called Corker “Liddle’ [sic] Bob Corker”.

Later on Tuesday, the White House denied that Trump was being blown off course by the sparring. Sarah Sanders, the press secretary, told reporters at the daily briefing: “He’s a fighter. We’ve said it many times before: the people of this country didn’t elect somebody to be weak; they elected somebody to be strong. And when he gets hit, he’s going to hit back, and I think Senator Corker knows that and he’s maybe trying to get a headline or two on his way out the door.”

Sanders insisted that the president believes “America’s winning” after his first nine months in office, citing achievements such as deregulation, economic growth and the defeat of Isis. “These are historic things that he’s done without Congress. Imagine how incredible and how many good things we would be doing if people like Senator Bob Corker got on board and started doing their job instead of doing so much grandstanding on TV.”

The president’s latest spat with the senator came after Corker said the White House should “step aside” and let Congress’s tax-writing committees figure out how to pay for the $1tn tax cut Trump wants to sign by the end of the year.

Corker said the tough, “spinach part” of the process was looming and suggested that recent White House decisions to take proposals off the table were not helping. On Monday, Trump ruled out changes to popular 401(k) retirement plans to help pay for the tax cut.

Corker has said he could oppose moves to pass tax reform, a priority for Republicans after the repeated failure of attempts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Corker has insisted that any changes to the tax code must reduce the deficit. Trump’s plan would probably increase it. Republicans hold a slim 52-48 majority in the Senate, making defections costly.

Trump accused him of “fighting tax cuts” and mused: “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!”

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Trump claimed again that Corker decided to retire after Trump refused to endorse him “and now is only negative on anything Trump. Look at his record!”

In a statement to the Guardian earlier this month, Corker’s chief of staff, Todd Womack, directly contradicted Trump’s claim. “The president called Sen Corker on Monday afternoon and asked him to reconsider his decision not to seek re-election and reaffirmed that he would have endorsed him, as he has said many times,” he said.

The meal with senators will be Trump’s first appearance as president at the Senate Republicans’ regular Tuesday policy lunch. Trump has also been sparring with GOP senators such as John McCain of Arizona and the majority leader, Mitch McConnell – though McConnell and Trump had a joint press conference last week to try to smooth things over.

The Associated Press contributed to this report