Trumps ire was apparently drawn by comments Corker made last week in which hesuggested thatSecretary of State Rex Tillerson, Defense Secretary JimMattis and White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly are those people that help separate our country from chaos. It didn't take much guesswork to figure out what or who he meant by chaos.
On Sunday morning, Trump responded with a trio of tweetsalleging thatCorker beggedhim for an endorsement in his 2018 reelection campaign and that Corker decided not to run he announcedthat decisionlate last month only because he did not have the guts.
Corker quickly responded with his own caustic message:
Senator Bob Corker?@SenBobCorker
It's a shame the White House has become an adult day care center. Someone obviously missed their shift this morning.
6:43 PM - Oct 8, 2017
Hours later,Trump responded:
Donald J. Trump?@realDonaldTrump
Bob Corker gave us the Iran Deal, & that's about it. We need HealthCare, we need Tax Cuts/Reform, we need people that can get the job done!
12:21 AM - Oct 9, 2017
In the Trump era, Twitter feuds are a dime a dozen but this one will have bigger consequences than most. Corker, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, isa powerful voice when it comes to foreign policy.And while he was once a Trump ally he advised Trump during last year's campaign and was considered a contender for secretary of state Trumps in-office behavior and Corkers upcoming retirement have changed everything.Now Corker has nothing left to lose and perhaps a whole lot to prove.
When it comes to Iran, this will be important. Trumphas repeatedlycriticized the 2015 agreement that limited Tehrans nuclear activities, oncedubbing itthe worst deal ever. This week, he is expected to announce a plan to decertify the agreement, claiming the deal is not in the interests of the United States.Congress wouldthen have todecide whether to reinstall sanctions on Iran, a move that couldcollapse the agreement altogether.
However, as my WorldViews colleague Amanda Ericksonhas explained, the presidents plan is already a big compromise. Trump could have unilaterally killed the deal by refusing to issue the waivers that kept the old sanctions from being imposed. Instead, he punted the decision to Congress.The Post also reportsthat he may hold off on recommending that sanctions be reinstated.
For the White House, the hope seems to be that the threat of sanctions will make Congress agree to a renegotiation of the Iran deal. In the resulting bipartisan debate about how to deal with Iran, the widely respected Corker would play a big role. If there is any Republican on Capitol Hill who stands a chance of persuading Democrats to come on board, it is Corker, asThe Posts Karoun Demirjianput it Sunday.
Given the small Republican majority in the Senate, Trump needs Corkers support for a number of other legislative measures, including taxreform and health care. Corker also controls diplomatic confirmations, which means he could hold up the appointment of a new secretary of state if Rex Tillerson another man in questionable standing with Trump leaves office.
That the president would get into an unnecessary spat with a man whose help he badly needs has confounded some critics. Trumps entire Iran plan rests on a careful dance with Congress, Ilan Goldenberg, a former Obama administration official and the director of the Middle East Security Program at the Center for a New American Security,wrote on Twitter. Corker may be the most important partner in that dance. This is so dumb.
There may be some twisted method to Trumps madness. He is aware that themajority of Americans, many ofU.S. alliesand even a number ofsenior members of his own stafffavor keeping the deal. He also knows his own base is deeply skeptical of the deal, and he is keen to undermine the Obama-era agreement if he can.
By handing off any real decision to Congress, he can avoid having to make a hard decision himself. And bypicking a fight with Corker, he has a scapegoat if his supporters grow frustrated with a lack of action in Congress.It seems plausible that Trumps allies are simply being prepared for another legislative failure.Tellingly, in his tweets Sunday, Trump accusedCorker of being largely responsible for the horrendous Iran Deal a surprisingly widespread criticism of Corker among Iran hawks on social media. In reality, Corker was critical of the Iran deal, and he has continued to push for further sanctionson Iranian entities. The bill he helped pass with Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.) in 2015 was designed to give Congress a say in the negotiations, not acquiesce to them.
This may not be the only misrepresentation in Trumps tweets: Corkers staff has disputed the claims that he sought Trumps endorsement, instead saying that the president had called the senator last week to ask him to reconsider his decision toretire.
As such, Trumps bluster seems unlikely to actually produce the meaningful changes to Iran policy he says he wants.Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) already showed the limits of Trumps bullying approach toward Congress by helping to killObamacare repealover the summer.In fact, given the once-friendly relationship between Trump and Corker, the presidents animosity to the senator may end up being more of a warning signal to other potential friends than a way to bring more of them into line.
