When a United States senator – a Republican whose feet are planted firmly on the ground – says President Donald Trump’s rhetoric is harmful to America, we should listen.
“I think that he has decided that his governing model is about division, anger, resentment, some cases hate. … We’ve got a situation where instead of appealing to the better angels of our nation and trying to unite,” he has chosen a different tack. “And I think it’s not an act. It’s just who he is. He’s very combative.”
This senator hasn’t said something like this just once.
Chattanooga’s Bob Corker in May 2017 said the White House was “in a downward spiral” after Trump revealed sensitive intelligence to Russia’s foreign minister and U.S. ambassador. Three months later, he told the Chattanooga Rotary Club after Charlottesville that the president “has not yet been able to demonstrate the stability nor some of the competence … to be successful.” Just over a year ago, Corker said Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Defense Secretary James Mattis and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly “help separate our country from chaos.” Then after a series of tweet insults and retorts from Trump, Corker’s rejoinder was: “It’s a shame the White House has become an adult day care center. Someone obviously missed their shift this morning.”
Last week, in an editorial board meeting with the Times Free Press, our former mayor put an exclamation point on the precarious situation our country now finds itself in. This may be especially true in foreign relations, he says, where, coupled with the tariff regime, the president’s “rhetoric” – Corker’s euphemism for the blustery, thoughtless things that fall out of Trump’s mouth – is damaging.
“There’s no one in the White House that can even explain why we’d have a call on national security under the 1974 Trade Act to put steel and aluminum tariffs on Canada and Mexico and our European allies when we’re trying to get at China for what they’re doing with the intellectual properties. It’s just not sensible.”
Corker says when people from other countries come to see members of Congress, “I think they still view us as the city on the hill, but they look at where we are today as an anomaly … an aberration.”
He hopes and believe they realize that Congress understands that what we say and do around the world matters more than any other country, and a world without our leadership is not as good a world as it could be.
We asked him, if this rhetoric goes on for two more years, or six years, how damaging is that in the long term?
“You understand that to even say that kind of thing, also reinforces what he’s attempting to do?” Corker responded. “I see no reason to squander the goodwill we have around the world at a time when our leadership is more important than ever.”
Thus a good, smart, thoughtful U.S. senator like Bob Corker – with whom we’ve not always agreed but certainly respect – decided to step away from Washington, Trump and lock-steppers.
Why haven’t more Republicans in Congress spoken up? When it became clear that Trump never was going to pivot or grow into his job, why have more then not spoken up, sought harder to influence the president or plainly taken stronger action to stand up to him?
Some think it’s because Trump is good at playing the victim. Maybe.
Or maybe it’s Congress and voters who are great at playing victims.
Certainly for a faithful party member, the realization that your leader is flawed is disappointing.
Democrats of a certain age – especially women – will no doubt remember their bitter disappointment with Bill Clinton as the stain on the intern’s blue dress became the talk of the nation. And Democrats will remember how all of the air was pulled out of the room when Hillary called half of Trump supporters “deplorables.” Yet compared to our daily Trump “anger” and “resentment” and “hate” fatigue, these moments seem like mere hiccups.
No matter our party affiliation, we are a patriotic country, and we want our president to succeed. As President Obama reminded us when Trump took office, if the president succeeds, we succeed.
But this president cannot get past his own bruised ego or pathetically thin skin. He can’t function without the rage, resentment and bullying that energize him and his base.
Unfortunately for us, that means he probably will never succeed. He doesn’t have it in him.
Until Corker and others in Congress – or their successors – understand that and move on it, we and our country are in grave danger.