忒形象了: White House has become "adult day care"

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An enraged U.S. President Donald Trump and a prominent Republican senator who fears the country could be edging toward "chaos" engaged in an intense and vitriolic back-and-forth bashing on social media on Sunday, in a remarkable airing of their party's profound rifts.

In political discourse that might once have seemed inconceivable, the Republican foreign policy expert in the Senate felt compelled to answer his president's barbs by tweeting: "It's a shame the White House has become an adult day care center. Someone obviously missed their shift this morning."

Trump earlier had laid bare his perceived grievances against retiring Sen. Bob Corker, a Republican from Tennessee, in a series of stinging tweets that contended Corker:

• Was "largely responsible for the horrendous" Iran nuclear deal, which the Democratic Obama administration negotiated and Corker considered badly flawed. The senator also tried to require that President Barack Obama submit the accord to Congress for approval.
• Intended to obstruct the White House agenda, though he offered no evidence for saying he expected Corker "to be a negative voice."
• "Begged" for Trump's endorsement in his 2018 re-election, then opted against seeking a third term when Trump declined, showing the senator "didn't have the guts to run." The Associated Press reported that Trump, in a private meeting in September, had urged Corker to run. Corker's chief of staff, Todd Womack, said Sunday that Trump called Corker last Monday to ask that he reconsider his decision to leave the Senate. Trump "reaffirmed that he would have endorsed him, as he has said many times," the aide said.
• Wanted to be secretary of state, and "I said 'NO THANKS,'" said Trump, who picked Exxon Mobil's Rex Tillerson for that Cabinet post. Corker, the Senate foreign relations committee chairman, was mentioned as a possible pick after the election.

Corker always had been one to speak his mind, and even before Sunday's verbal volleys, his new free agent status promised to make Trump and the party nervous. Already, there was the prospect of even more elbow room to say what he wants and to vote how he pleases over the next 15 months as Trump and the party's leaders on Capitol Hill struggle to get their agenda on track.

Budget director Mick Mulvaney speaks at the White House on March 16. Mulvaney said on NBC's Meet the Press, shortly before Trump took to Twitter on Sunday, that "it's going to be fun to work" with Corker. (Andrew Harnik/Associated Press)

Not long before Trump's tweeting, White House budget director Mick Mulvaney said on NBC's Meet the Press that "it's going to be fun to work" with Corker, "especially now that he's not running for re-election, because I think it sort of unleashes him to do whatever — and say whatever — he wants to say."

Tax reform at issue
Corker, a fiscal hawk, is holding the Republicans' feet to the fire on tax legislation, declaring he'll oppose any measure that increases the national debt by a cent. Republicans hold a narrow, majority in the Senate, and just three defections would torpedo the top priority in their partisan push.

Corker delivered a rebuke of the Trump White House after the president's provocative tweets undermined Tillerson's diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis with North Korea. Corker said Tillerson, along with Defence Secretary Jim Mattis and White House chief of staff John Kelly, are "those people that help separate our country from chaos."

Corker will be at the centre of what may be a stormy debate over the future of the Iran agreement. Trump's hostility toward the deal has stoked concerns he's aiming to dismantle the international accord despite Europe's objections. Corker is opposed to scrapping the agreement outright.

"You can only tear these things up one time," Corker said. "It might feel good for a second. But one of the things that's important for us is to keep our allies with us, especially our Western allies."

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican from Alaska, speaks in Washington in 2015. Murkowski has faced criticism from Trump recently over her opposition to Republican health-care legislation. (J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press)

Corker is the latest Republican to face Trump's wrath. The president in recent months has lit into Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, of Kentucky, over the failure of the party to repeal and replace Obama's health care law. Trump also specifically targeted Senators John McCain, of Arizona, and Lisa Murkowski, of Alaska, for their opposition to Republican health legislation.

Trump's latest broadside came a day after he said he spoke to Minority Leader Chuck Schumer about working on health care legislation, a fresh example of his occasional outreach to Democrats.

'Citizen legislator'
Corker, 65, announced last month that his second, six-year term would be his last. The self-described "citizen legislator" and former Tennessee finance commissioner now stands as a throwback to the fiscally diligent Republicans of yesteryear as his Republican colleagues embrace tax cuts that, they contend, will pay for themselves by spurring economic growth.

But ahead of the Republican push on taxes, Corker stewed over his party's inattention to the country's ever-increasing national debt, now at $20 trillion-plus. Since the election, too many Republicans have acted like it's "party time," and "a light switch has gone off" on fiscal issues, according to Corker.

'There's been a lot of sugar talked about the last couple of weeks. There hasn't been a lot of spinach talked about.'— Sen. Bob Corker, on tax reform
He voted against the annual defence policy bill, a typically popular piece of legislation, because the measure exceeded congressionally mandated spending caps by more than $80 billion.

Corker also refused to back the Harvey storm disaster aid package, which also extended America's borrowing authority and funded the government through Dec. 8. The package contained no offsetting budget cuts. Corker derided it as another example of Washington "kicking the can down the road."

Trump delivers remarks on proposed changes to the U.S. tax code at the state fairgrounds in Indianapolis on Sept. 27. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

All that was prelude to his dismay over the current direction of the Republicans' tax overhaul. The tax system rewrite is a priority for Trump and his Republican allies in Congress. But Corker, a member of the Senate budget committee and the Senate banking, housing and urban affairs committee, has said the plan's hefty tax cuts could balloon the public debt by several trillion more dollars.

He considers the government's financial shortfalls to be more of a threat than North Korea or the Islamic State militants.

"There's been a lot of sugar talked about the last couple of weeks," Corker said. "There hasn't been a lot of spinach talked about."

Corker in August delivered a blistering assessment of Trump in the wake of the president's contentious remarks about the violence in Charlottesville, Va. Corker said Trump hasn't "demonstrated that he understands the character of this nation."

Trump fired back, tweeting that Corker's comments were strange "considering that he is constantly asking me whether or not he should run again in '18. Tennessee not happy!" Trump later encouraged Corker to run for a third term, but the senator decided not to.

© The Associated Press, 2017

 

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Bob Corker may be right about Donald Trump's White House
By Michael D'Antonio
Updated 11:53 PM ET, Sun October 8, 2017

Editor's Note: Michael D'Antonio is the author of the book "Never Enough: Donald Trump and the Pursuit of Success" (St. Martin's Press). The opinions expressed in this commentary are his.

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(CNN) In the end, Donald Trump finally pushed Sen. Bob Corker to the point of exasperation, frustration and exhaustion felt by vast numbers of Americans who despair of the President's behavior. "It's a shame the White House has become an adult day care center," tweeted Corker, referring to his fellow Republican as if he needs constant minding. "Someone obviously missed their shift this morning."

Corker was provoked by early Sunday morning statements from Trump. who said, via Twitter, "Senator Bob Corker 'begged' me to endorse him for re-election in Tennessee, I said 'NO' and he dropped out (said he could not win without my endorsement)." Trump also said Corker asked to become secretary of state but, "I said 'NO THANKS.'" He also said Corker "didn't have the guts" to seek re-election in 2018.

The capital letters suggest the tweets came straight from the President. He loves capital letters. But the timing and content are more important indicators of authenticity. Trump's social media outbursts are more vivid on weekends, when he's likely home alone.

And true Trump tweets resonate with a tone -- "guts" and "begged me" are classics -- that makes it seem like he doesn't quite understand where he is, or what is required of him. (Never mind that Corker's chief of staff, Todd Womack, challenged Trump's account of the facts: "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.")

The fact that Trump could conduct stream-of-consciousness carping from the confines of the same White House that had been occupied by the likes of Lincoln, FDR and Ronald Reagan suggests that he may not be aware of his surroundings. As he tweets about TV shows, we can see that his mind is too often fixed on matters beneath a president. And when he does focus on something important, like national security, he indulges in silliness about the "Rocket Man" (Kim Jong Un) or praises himself: "Wow, Senator Luther Strange picked up a lot of additional support since my endorsement."

Despite the President's "Wow," Alabama's Sen. Strange wound up losing a GOP primary to Roy Moore. A religious extremist who was twice forced to step down from the Alabama Supreme Court, Moore had called homosexuality "evil," insisted Muslim Rep. Keith Ellison should not be permitted to serve in Congress and suggested the attacks of 9/11 could have been God's punishment for American sinfulness.

The prospect of serving with Moore may have helped Corker reach his decision to retire as of 2018, but his concern about Trump predates the Alabama primary. In August, Corker was obviously appalled by Trump's response to a white supremacist march in Charlottesville, when he said among the torch-bearing neo-Nazis there were some "very fine" people.

Corker considered these words and concluded, "The President has not yet been able to demonstrate the stability nor some of the competence that he needs to demonstrate in order to be successful."

Just days ago, Corker stood up for Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who had reportedly called Trump a "moron" and was trying to demonstrate his loyalty to the President. "I see what's happening here," said Corker. "I deal with people throughout the administration and (Tillerson), from my perspective, is in an incredibly frustrating place, where, as I watch, OK, and I can watch very closely on many occasions, I mean you know, he ends up being, not being supported in the way I would hope a secretary of state would be supported. That's just from my vantage point." He suggested that Tillerson, along with Defense Secretary James Mattis and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, were keeping the United States from tumbling into "chaos."

practicing "truthful hyperbole," Trump makes much of the world cringe as he fails to achieve his agenda at home and undercuts his own secretary of state abroad.

With Trump in a cycle of saying and doing destructive and disruptive things unbecoming the leader of the free world, Corker seems to be suffering from the sort of burnout experienced by those who care for senior relatives.

Here his evocation of "adult care" is more meaningful than the senator may even know. Adult day care is as much a service for the friends and family of those with dementia and other disabling conditions as it is for those who attend programs. The respite they receive when experts take over for a few hours makes it possible to continue with the burden of caregiving.

In the case of President Trump, the parallel with adults in care includes, also, the sad reality that someone who is supposed to be strong and capable is, instead, in need of supervision. It's hard to begrudge Corker his decision to escape dealing with a president in this condition by not running for re-election. But as a member of the Republican Party, he's one of the few who have the standing to get through to the man, and thus it seems like he's taking the easy way out while leaving more of the work to the rest of us. We're burned out, too.