Republican senators take aim at Trump amid party infighting

A pair of senators from US president Donald Trump's own Republican Party have blistered him with criticism in a dramatic day of denunciation that laid bare a party at war with itself.

Jeff Flake of Arizona declared he would not be "complicit" with Mr Trump and announced his surprise retirement, while Bob Corker of Tennessee declared the president "debases our nation" with constant untruths and name-calling.

Mr Corker, too, is retiring at the end of his term, and the White House shed no tears at the prospect of the two Republican senators' departures.

.@JeffFlake is a true conservative, an outstanding senator and a cherished friend. My statement on his announcement today: pic.twitter.com/SIgVzieEXL

— Senator Bob Corker (@SenBobCorker) October 24, 2017

A former adviser to Steve Bannon, Mr Trump's ex-strategic adviser, called it all "a monumental victory for the Trump movement," and Mr Trump himself boasted to staff members that he had played a role in forcing the senators out.

Same untruths from an utterly untruthful president. #AlertTheDaycareStaff

— Senator Bob Corker (@SenBobCorker) October 24, 2017

It was a stunning rebuke of a sitting president from prominent members of his own party - and added to a chorus of criticism of Mr Trump that has been growing louder and more public. Mr Flake challenged his fellow senators to follow his lead, but there were few immediate signs they would.

At mid-afternoon, as fellow politicians sat in attentive silence, Mr Flake stood at his Senate desk and delivered an emotional speech in which he dissected what he considered his party's accommodations with Mr Trump and said he could no longer play a role in them.

"We were not made great as a country by indulging in or even exalting our worst impulses, turning against ourselves, glorifying in the things that divide us and calling fake things true and true things fake," he said.

Hours earlier, Mr Corker levelled his own searing criticism of Mr Trump in a series of interviews.

"I think the debasement of our nation will be what he'll be remembered most for and that's regretful," Mr Corker said.

A furious Mr Trump did not let that pass unremarked. On Twitter, he called Mr Corker "incompetent", said he "doesn't have a clue" and claimed the two-term politician "couldn't get elected dog catcher in Tennessee".

An overstatement to be sure, but White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in regard to the impending retirements: "The people both in Tennessee and Arizona supported this president, and I don't think that the numbers are in the favour of either of those two senators in their states and so I think this was probably the right decision."

Until Tuesday, Mr Flake had insisted he had no plans to retire. He was raising money at a good rate and casting his re-election campaign as a test case of conservatism against Trumpism. But he made clear on Tuesday he had concluded that, for now at least, Trumpism had prevailed.

"It is clear at this moment that a traditional conservative who believes in limited government and free markets, who is devoted to free trade, who is pro-immigration, has a narrower and narrower path to nomination in the Republican Party," he said.

Earlier Mr Corker had said of Mr Trump, "His governing model is to divide and to attempt to bully and to use untruths." He said that he and others in the party had attempted to intervene with Mr Trump over the months, sometimes at the behest of White House officials, but "he's obviously not going to rise to the occasion as president."

"Unfortunately I think world leaders are very aware that much of what he says is untrue," Mr Corker said.

AP