Condemned by members of his own party...

Trump’s moment of unity turns into GOP crackup

Trump wanted to rally Senate Republicans around tax reform — but found himself being condemned by members of his own party.

By SEUNG MIN KIM, JOSH DAWSEY and ELANA SCHOR

President Donald Trump strode into the Senate GOP lunch Tuesday in what Republicans hoped would be a unified show of force as the party launched its ambitious tax push.

Instead, the day was bookended with brutal critiques of Trump’s leadership from two adversaries from his own party freshly liberated to speak their minds — overwhelming any attempts to seal the cracks in a deeply fractured Republican Party.

Trump reignited his feud with Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker of Tennessee, who ramped up his criticisms of his onetime ally by saying the president will be most remembered for “the debasement of our nation.” As that battle seemed to settle down, Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) abruptly announced he would retire and laid into Trump in a searing assessment from the Senate chamber: “Reckless, outrageous and undignified behavior has become excused as telling it like it is when it is actually just reckless, outrageous and undignified.”

“None of this is normal. And what do we as United States senators have to say about it?” Flake said in his speech. “I have children and grandchildren to answer to. And so … I will not be complicit or silent.”

The day wasn’t supposed to be like this. And it underscores deepening Republican fears that Trump’s personal spats will undermine GOP priorities, most notably tax reform.

Trump had been mending fences in his oft-tenuous relationship with GOP senators, starting last week by dining with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and inviting members of the powerful Senate Finance Committee to the White House. During Tuesday’s lunch, Trump was exceedingly complimentary — especially toward McConnell — on the Senate’s confirmation of judges, according to a source familiar with the meeting.

The lunch, Trump’s first visit with Senate Republicans on their turf at the Capitol, was supposed to continue that sense of momentum and unity as the GOP gears up in earnest for tax reform.

But rather than looking forward, Trump talked largely about his own accomplishments in his first year and declined to give much direction on the nitty-gritty of policy, particularly on divisive issues on which lawmakers had been clamoring for more direction.

There wasn’t much from Trump on what a tax overhaul should look like except that it should be focused on the middle class. “He said wealthy people don’t need the help,” recalled Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas, “but we need to get jobs back in this country, which means we need to deal with the business rates, the corporate tax and pass-through rates.”

But Cornyn added: “We know what the job is, what we have to do. It wasn’t a whole lot about taxes.”

Rather than talk specifics, Trump’s message on taxes, according to Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), was more: Let’s get it done.

On health care, it was more of the same: Trump praised Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) — who has crafted a bipartisan bill to stabilize Obamacare markets — yet didn’t say whether he actually backs the legislation, senators said.

And inside the lunch, it was as if the caustic spat between a president and a powerful committee chairman of his own party hadn’t even happened. Corker and Trump had no interaction during the hourlong lunch, senators said, and no other lawmaker brought up the elephant in the room. Trump and Flake didn’t talk during the lunch, either.

Also left unmentioned: Senate Republicans’ ongoing battle with former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, who has vowed to try to unseat nearly all Senate GOP incumbents on the ballot this cycle.

The lunch agenda was largely focused, the mood mostly businesslike and even, at times, lighthearted. Trump called at least two dozen of the Republicans by their first names, adding to the cordial tone, Roberts said.

Trump ribbed Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) — who has bucked Republicans on the budget and Obamacare repeal — and asked him, “But you’re going to be with us on taxes, right, Rand?”

The senator responded: “I’m with you on taxes,” according to the source familiar with the lunch.

In one unusual moment, Trump asked for a show of hands from Republicans on whom they favored as the next chairman of the Federal Reserve, senators said. Trump also seemed to step away slightly from his hard-line immigration stance — Cornyn said the president remarked that his long-prized border wall could be a fence in some places, particularly where it’s important to be able to see through to the other side.

“It was a very positive meeting,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said. “Nobody called anybody an ignorant slut or anything.”

Trump tweeted late Tuesday, “So nice being with Republican Senators today. Multiple standing ovations!”

But outside the lunch, Republicans were again overcome with questions about the internal GOP feud — which was inflamed further Tuesday with Flake’s retirement announcement and accompanying floor speech.

Hounded with numerous questions about senators’ criticism of Trump, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders dismissed Flake and Corker as “petty” and said their respective decisions to retire were “right.”

Some of Flake’s closest allies leapt to his defense.

“Jeff Flake is entitled to say whatever the hell he wants to say,” said frequent Trump antagonist Sen. John McCain, clearly emotional over his fellow Arizona Republican’s decision not to run for a second Senate term.

Corker added: “I hate to see somebody like Jeff leave, I really do.”

“But I also believe that when you come up here in more of a missional way, that you’re here for a period of time, you’re able to speak about things with I think a clearer voice than otherwise,” Corker said. “And Jeff’s done that the entire time. He did it from Day One.”

Most other Republicans hesitated to wade into the GOP civil war.

McConnell deflected multiple questions about Corker and other Trump critics during a news conference following the lunch, dismissing the intra-GOP fight as “distractions.” And Senate Republican Conference Chairman John Thune, like other GOP leaders, refused to criticize Trump.

Instead, the South Dakota Republican made the same “bottom line” argument that GOP lawmakers have made since Trump was sworn in. They may not like Trump, and his public spats with Corker and other Republicans may infuriate them, but he is the president and they need him in order to pass legislation.

When asked whether he agreed with Flake’s assessment, Thune wouldn’t go there.

“That’s his conclusion. Mine is that it doesn’t matter what I think,” Thune said. “We’ve got a job to do, and we’ve got to try to get it passed for the American people.”

Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), who sat at a table with Trump during the lunch, said, “We were talking policy.”

“There’s always distractions going on,” she added. “I try to focus on the policy.”