WASHINGTON — Former Missouri GOP senator John Danforth called President Trump "the most divisive president in our history" and warned Republicans not to let him tarnish the GOP's image.

"Trump is always eager to tell people that they don’t belong here, whether it’s Mexicans, Muslims, transgender people or another group. His message is, “You are not one of us',” Danforth wrote in a Washington Post op-ed posted online Thursday evening. "And when he has the opportunity to unite Americans, to inspire us, to call out the most hateful among us, the KKK and the neo-Nazis, he refuses."

Danforth's op-ed is a harshly worded rebuke from a GOP elder statesman, coming at a time when Trump is already under fire for his response to the racially charged violence in Charlottesville, where white supremacists rallied earlier this month.

Danforth, an ordained Episcopal priest and three-term senator, called on Republicans to "disassociate ourselves from Trump" and tell voters that "he does not represent what it means to be a Republican." He suggested Republicans were at risk of losing their historical connection to Abraham Lincoln and the crusade to end slavery during the Civil War.

"We are the party of the Union, and (Trump) is the most divisive president in our history," Danforth wrote. "There hasn’t been a more divisive person in national politics since George Wallace."

Danforth's Washington Post op-ed:Trump is exactly what Republicans are not

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