Sen. Bob Corker's public comments reflect what many Republicans on the Hill say behind the scenes. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo Bob Corker uncorks while Republicans theorize Trump could run against them in 2020

EXTRAORDINARY TIMES -- WHERE WE ARE -- The president tried to convince Chuck Schumer to repeal and replace Obamacare, and is in a war with Sen. Bob Corker, a Tennessee Republican key to his agenda. Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump have been hosting dinners with some Senate Republicans and Democrats, with the quaint notion they can push an agenda that “should be above partisan politics,” per Axios’s Jonathan Swan. http://bit.ly/2y430EB

-- CORKER UNCORKED -- WHAT EVERYONE IS TALKING ABOUT: JONATHAN MARTIN and MARK LANDLER on A1: “Bob Corker Says Trump’s Recklessness Threatens ‘World War III’”: “Senator Bob Corker, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, charged in an interview on Sunday that President Trump was treating his office like ‘a reality show,’ with reckless threats toward other countries that could set the nation ‘on the path to World War III.’


“In an extraordinary rebuke of a president of his own party, Mr. Corker said he was alarmed about a president who acts ‘like he’s doing ‘The Apprentice’ or something.’ ‘He concerns me,’ Mr. Corker added. ‘He would have to concern anyone who cares about our nation.’” http://nyti.ms/2z8dY9V

POLITICO Playbook newsletter Sign up today to receive the #1-rated newsletter in politics Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

-- OTHER KEY POINTS: “I know for a fact that every single day at the White House, it’s a situation of trying to contain him.”

-- “[Corker], who is close to Mr. Tillerson, invoked comments that the president made on Twitter last weekend in which he appeared to undercut Mr. Tillerson’s negotiations with North Korea. ‘A lot of people think that there is some kind of ‘good cop, bad cop’ act underway, but that’s just not true,’ Mr. Corker said. Without offering specifics, he said Mr. Trump had repeatedly undermined diplomacy with his Twitter fingers. ‘I know he has hurt, in several instances, he’s hurt us as it relates to negotiations that were underway by tweeting things out,’ Mr. Corker said.”

-- THIS WILL PROBABLY ANGER TRUMP: “‘Look, except for a few people, the vast majority of our caucus understands what we’re dealing with here,’ he said, adding that ‘of course they understand the volatility that we’re dealing with and the tremendous amount of work that it takes by people around him to keep him in the middle of the road.’”

REAL TALK -- Corker is right in that many Republicans share these thoughts about Trump. No, it doesn’t mean they’re going to impeach him. It just means they feel like they can’t deal with him on the level. That impacts things like tax reform, health care, etc.

THERE ARE 32 LEGISLATIVE DAYS left in 2017.

WHAT SENATE REPUBLICANS ARE BUZZING ABOUT -- IN THE LAST 24 HOURS, several very senior Senate Republicans have reached out to us with the following theory: The White House’s top legislative priority -- tax reform -- fails. Republicans lose the House, and keep the Senate by a razor-thin margin at best. Trump blames Senate Republicans, who have not dismantled the Senate filibuster rules. He runs in 2020 against Senate Republicans, and uses Pelosi and Schumer as a foil.