Senator Bob Corker (R-TN), has been picking a fight with President Trump all week, and on Sunday an all-out political food fight began in The Swamp cafeteria.
After recently announcing that he would retire and not seek re-election, Corker lobbed a few choice morsels in the direction of the president. As Susan Davis of NPR wrote earlier this week, “At the marathon Senate Budget Committee hearing this week, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., strolled in like a man who had just quit his job and was ready to tell the boss what he really thinks.”
Then it was the boss' s turn to fire back.
Yesterday morning President Trump tossed the political chow in Corker’s direction and went after him full-tilt in a series of tweets:
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/917029060471152640
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/917030148867682304
Okay, Mr. President, now please tell us how you really feel?
Look for the Signals
Without a doubt, Corker had RINO tendencies and stepped down because he could see the handwriting on the wall. In fact, all he need do is take a look at the 2016 presidential election map of Tennessee:
Red = Trump
With Tennessee oozing red for Trump and the recent primary win of Roy Moore for the Senate seat in Alabama, Corker surely came face to face with a potential defeat in Tennessee. Here’s what the local folks from the Tennessean wrote this week about the relationship between their senator and the president:
“Corker, who announced his decision to retire from the Senate in late September, has a mercurial relationship with the president. Once on the short list for vice president and secretary of state, Corker has become the source of the most stinging GOP criticism of Trump since election day. In recent months, Corker has said the White House is in a "downward spiral" and questioned Trump's competency to lead, prompting an angry tweet from Trump toward Corker.”
As any student of politics knows, President Trump doesn’t take kindly to criticism. And while his tweets may seem mean-spirited to some, they manage to do the job of letting opponents know just where he stands. This public call-out of a sitting Senator is nothing new from the president. In fact, it is a well-established Modus operandi and has become a useful tool -- warning others who might be tempted to take a stand against him.
The Real Trump
For a long while now, Americans and Republicans, in particular, have been subject to “kinder, gentler” GOP presidents. As Republicans often tried to make peace with Democrats, they have found themselves on the short end of the stick again and again. That is certainly not the case with President Trump. He is gruff and tough and sometimes can be lewd and crude. Perhaps this is why he was elected.
While the establishment media finds Trump’s tweets low-class and unbecoming a president, the American people who support him find them to be refreshingly plain spoken. As well, one gets the feeling that many Republicans read the president’s tweets with an “it’s about time” attitude. Either way, the President comes off as a man with whom one should not trifle.
Perhaps Senator Bob Corker learned that lesson the hard way.
