Senate will not 'poke the bear' Trump by passing tariff measure: lawmaker

"So gosh, we can't vote on the Corker amendment, '" he said. McConnell termed it an "exercise in futility" becauseTrump would never sign such legislation. Instead, after he was played a clip of Corker's remarks, he said, "you know what, if it's a cult, it's because they like what my father is doing".

Rubio's tweet - which came while President Trump is lavishing praise on the North Korean dictator as "a strong guy" with "a very good personality" who is "very strategic" and "very impressive" - piqued Fox News host Sandra Smith, who pointed out to him, "the president, he sits down with Sean Hannity, he's talking about Kim Jong Un as someone who appeared to be amusing, he's smart, the president has said of him". John Cornyn for not taking more concrete steps to push back on President Donald Trump's aggressive trade agenda.

Corker, who chairs the Foreign Relations Committee, criticized the president for overstepping his authority on slapping tariffs on aluminum and steel by simply claiming they were a national security interest. "My gosh, if the President gets upset with us we might not be in the majority".

Corker offered the amendment in response to Trump's recent decision to impose a 25 percent tariff on steel and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum imports, even from USA allies, arguing they are needed for national security. Trump brought a group of Republican senators to the White House last week to argue against the need for the Corker legislation, and called other GOP senators individually, including from Singapore as he prepared for the North Korea summit. Inhofe said he would work with Corker to find another bill that could serve as a vehicle for his amendment "but not to the defense authorization bill". But the senator leading the defense debate, James Inhofe of Oklahoma, said Tuesday he wouldn't go along because it risked holding up Pentagon funding and wasn't directly related. "I think this would cause a lot of damage".

The premium placed on loyalty to Trump in today's Republican Party was on display on Fox News on Wednesday, when Sen.

"I heard. the senior senator from Texas saying the other day, 'Well, gosh, we might upset the president".

Corker said such procedures are "used as customarily as waking up in the morning and drinking a cup of coffee", he said. "And so let's don't do anything that might upset the president'".