Sen. Bob Corker says he declined an invitation to join President Barack Obama’s historic trip to Asia this week, citing the busy congressional schedule.

But Corker did find time for a New York meeting with Donald Trump on Monday — a visit the Tennessee Republican downplayed despite ceaseless questions about whether he’s being considered as a vice-presidential nominee.


The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is plainly excited about Trump’s candidacy upending traditional political allegiances in Washington, even as he deflects questions about joining the Manhattan mogul on the ticket. Trump has campaigned as a deal maker who isn’t beholden to parties or ideology — the kind of pitch that could fit nicely with Corker’s own propensity for working across the aisle.

“Right now our country’s on a very negative trend with things as they’re going with both parties and the situation we’re in. That’s the thing that’s attracted Americans to [Trump] is hoping the status quo will change and we can address some of the big issues the nation is dealing with,” Corker said in a brief interview Monday after visiting with Trump.

While other Republicans have transformed from critics into Trump surrogates over the past few weeks, Corker has always maintained a distance from the race by refusing to endorse or criticize anyone by name, attacking the Washington “establishment” for ignoring voters in March as Trump became the clear front-runner. But, by coincidence or otherwise, when Corker could have been showing off his bipartisan foreign policy chops traveling with Obama, he was instead outside Trump Tower facing a mob of media and vice-presidential speculation.

Still, for all the hype attached to his New York visit, Corker remains a cautious booster of Trump on Capitol Hill. He told reporters Monday that while he believes Trump is a realist on foreign policy, he disagrees with Trump on some nuclear nonproliferation issues. And, so far, he’s not committed to setting up meetings between other senators and Trump or taking on a more active role as a Trump booster.

After all, Monday was the first time they’d met.

Trump and Corker share an independent streak rooted in business. Corker came up building shopping centers in the South while Trump was working his real estate business in New York. But that independent flair might make Corker a reluctant surrogate for Trump: He’s not the kind of politician to unabashedly take up pro-Trump talking points, and he demurs when asked to defend the real estate mogul’s sound bite of the day.

“Thank you for asking, but I just don’t want to get into a daily discussion of things that come up in the presidential race. I’ll weigh in on some, but the daily fluctuations that take place, I just don’t really see any need to weigh in,” Corker told an energy reporter last week when asked about Trump’s vows to tear up the Paris climate accord. “You can keep asking. One day I might answer one of them.”

Corker also wouldn’t be a traditional vice-presidential pick and might make more sense serving as a foreign policy adviser or, perhaps, a secretary of state. Corker is from Tennessee, safe Republican territory, and does not bring a swath of younger voters or a different demographic with him — something Trump is likely looking for in a running mate.

He does, however, have good relationships with senators in both parties as perhaps Congress’ most influential foreign policy lawmaker.

“Sen. Corker does know a lot about foreign affairs, and obviously this is something that Mr. Trump hasn’t had a lot of experience in,” said Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas). “They’ve got some things in common.”

In fact, if there is a lawmaker whose record most closely mirrors Trump’s brand of deal making, it might be Corker.

“He’s a reasonable guy. I’d say he’s one of the better people around here,” said Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). “So he’d be good [as VP], but I don’t know that we could afford” to lose him.

Corker and Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) struck a bipartisan deal in 2013 to load up an immigration bill with border security measures. He was the only GOP senator to support opening debate on raising the minimum wage to $10.10 in 2014, which even moderates like Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Mark Kirk of Illinois rejected. He is openly disgusted with how Congress pays for highway construction without raising the gas tax, and he voted against a long-term transportation bill viewed as a bipartisan breakthrough last year. And as his party sought to dismantle the Iran nuclear deal, Corker worked with Democrats on a bill that allowed Congress a vote on the deal that Obama was forced to sign because of overwhelming support.

That’s not to say Corker is an ideological centrist: He’s essentially a down-the-line Republican on most issues. But he’s willing to cast aside political orthodoxy if it means he can get traction on an issue he cares about.

“He’s a serious legislator who likes to resolve issues,” said Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, who works with Corker on a daily basis.

Pragmatic deal making isn’t the only interest that Corker and Trump share: Corker loves the limelight, often holding long media gaggles that bounce from topic to topic. While aides sought to keep his post-Trump availability brief, he ended up talking for 12 minutes. And he’s not huge on manufactured talking points either. He likes to call things as he sees them, all with his trademark Tennessee twang.

That means he’s still defending his work on immigration reform three years ago even as Trump has run a divisive campaign punctuated by sharp rhetoric targeting undocumented immigrants.

“Had that become law, we actually wouldn’t be having an immigration debate now,” Corker said Monday of legislation that would have added thousands of border patrol agents and hundreds of miles of fencing. “My guess is [Trump] might agree with that portion of the bill.”

