President Trump canceled a meeting with Sen. Bob Corker, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, while he was waiting in the White House.
Corker, who has been publicly criticizing Trump for more than a year after being passed over for the job of secretary of state, told reporters the president stood him up at the last minute ahead of their prearranged discussion Wednesday.
The retiring Tennessee senator, who is chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations, the preeminent international affairs body in Congress, was expected to raise the issue of Syria.
.@SenBobCorker tells reporters his planned meeting with President Trump was cancelled WHILE he was sitting at the White House waiting for Trump.
This is a committee chairman of the President’s own party, on a day with significant international news.
— Garrett Haake (@GarrettHaake) December 19, 2018
Corker was one of many senators who were blindsided Wednesday by Trump’s decision to pull all 2,000 U.S. troops out of Syria as quickly as possible. The president tweeted Wednesday morning that the U.S. had completed its mission supporting local Kurdish and Arab forces fighting ISIS in the country, which has been at the center of a four-year war. The withdrawal sparked bipartisan criticism from lawmakers.
Trump had no public events on his schedule today, according to the White House press office’s daily guidance. He was only due to attend an intelligence briefing, a lunch, and two holiday receptions Wednesday evening.
Trump and Corker have frequently clashed over foreign policy, particularly where it intersects with trade and tariffs. Corker over the weekend indicated next year may make it more clear to him whether a centrist Democrat might be better for the country than another term of Trump.
