Corker Doubts Trump Seeks Re-Election

NASHVILLE, TN -- The rollercoaster relationship between retiring Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker and President Donald Trump took another unexpected turn Friday when the Republican lawmaker said he doubts Trump runs for a second term in 2020.

"Do I think the president is going to run? I kind of doubt it to be honest," Corker said, according to WKRN. "But we'll see. He may."

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Corker and Trump have had what may be charitably described as an interesting relationship since the former reality television personality became the GOP frontrunner for the 2016 nomination.

At first one of Trump's most ardent supporters in the Senate, the pair's relationship soured late last summer after Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told reporters in Chattanooga Trump "has not yet been able to demonstrate the stability nor some of the competence that he needs to demonstrate in order to be successful" and suggested the president did not understand the character of the country and reiterated those criticisms following a veterans' breakfast in Nashville, urging the president to stop "seeking to further divide our nation in order to stimulate your base, energize your base."

After a brief rapprochement, the feud fired up again after a Corker interview with the New York Times. Trump mocked Corker's height and the senator responded by calling the White House "an adult day care."

The pair's relationship appeared to be back on the mend, though Corker did describe his vote for the president's tax plan as perhaps the worst of his career.

In any event, Corker does have doubts the president is going to seek a second term and in recent weeks said that any Republican Senator not conflicted by the presidency is "comatose or is pretty useless in their blindness."

"He changes his mind a lot. He changes his mind multiple times during the day, so some of that has created somewhat of a chaotic rollout of some of the policies but generally speaking we have made a lot of progress in the last year and a half," he said Friday, according to News 2.

Corker also said that while he gave Rep. Marsha Blackburn the maximum amount for her campaign to replace him, he will not be on the stump campaigning against the Democratic frontrunner, former Gov. Phil Bredesen, a long-time friend of Corker's.

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