WASHINGTON – Embroiled in feuds with a prominent Republican senator and his own secretary of State, President Trump said Tuesday that the increasingly personal disputes do not threaten tax reform or mean a major military conflict is imminent.

Trump waved off Republican Sen. Bob Corker's recent claim that his threats against other countries and reckless rhetoric could put the nation "on a path to World War III," telling reporters that "we were on the wrong path before" he took office.

“All you have to do is have to take a look," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "If you look over the last 25 years, through numerous administrations, we were on the path to a very big problem, a problem like this world has never seen. We’re on the right path right now, believe me.”

Trump’s comments come just days after Corker, from Tennessee, told The New York Times that the president was treating the White House like a "reality show" – and that his threats risked a global catastrophe.

Trump, who threatened last month at the United Nations to "totally destroy" North Korea if the U.S. had to defend itself or its allies, has continued to suggest that a military option may be necessary against the rogue nation. The president is also expected to de-certify the Iran nuclear agreement later this week, a potential move that Corker and other lawmakers have criticized.

As for his ongoing scuffle with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Trump said he is still has confidence in him and denied suggestions he has tried to undermine his chief diplomat.

For days, Trump has criticized Tillerson's efforts to negotiate with North Korea over its nuclear weapons program.



Just one day after Tillerson first acknowledged the administration is seeking a dialogue with North Korea about its missile and nuclear tests, Trump on Oct. 1 tweeted that his secretary of state "is wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man," using his mocking nickname for North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

On Tuesday, as he met with former secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Trump told reporters of Tillerson: “I didn’t undercut anybody. I don’t believe in undercutting people."

Yet in a Forbes magazine article posted early Tuesday, Trump responded to reports that Tillerson once called him a "moron" by saying the two should take and compare intelligence tests. "I think it's fake news, but if he did that, I guess we'll have to compare IQ tests," Trump told Forbes. "And I can tell you who is going to win."

Trump ignored or didn't hear questions about IQ tests during his session with reporters, while aides laughed off the president's intelligence test challenge.

"He made a joke, nothing more than that," said White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said.

At the State Department, spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Tillerson has a "high" IQ.

After the meeting with Kissinger, Trump had a working lunch with Tillerson and Defense Secretary James Mattis.

Foreign policy and political analysis are agog at the soap-opera style bickering between Trump and other government officials, including members of his own Republican Party.

The battles with Corker and Tillerson can't help but unnerve allies and embolden adversaries, analysts said. Especially the president's feud with his own cabinet official.

"It's unseemly, unprofessional, and quite unprecedented," said Aaron David Miller, a former State Department adviser for Republican and Democratic administrations. "It suggests a real dysfunction of the process in which foreign policy is made in this administration."

While Trump's relationship with Tillerson could affect his foreign policy, his arguments with Corker could affect the prospects for tax reform and other legislation.

While Corker, a member of budget and banking committees, would be a key player in getting legislation through the Senate, Trump said voters' desire for tax reform will overshadow any personal disputes.

"People want to see tax cuts, they want to see major reductions in their taxes and they want to see tax reform," he said. "And that's what we're doing."