--- title: President Trump Starts Twitter Spat With Retiring Sen Corker description: Sen. Bob Corker lashed out at Trump after the President said Corker failed to receive his endorsement to run for a third term canonical: https://time.com/5487755/trump-twitter-spat-corker/ author: Alejandro de la Garza article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-12-23T22:13:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:53:01.715Z article:section: Politics og:title: 'Like Mexico Is Paying for the Wall': Retiring Sen. Corker and President Trump Trade Twitter Barbs og:description: #AlertTheDaycareStaff og:url: https://time.com/5487755/trump-twitter-spat-corker/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt13b2af5077271cdf/69894233b21a9cb6cf4ffc85/Corker-Trump-false-claim.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Senators Await FBI Report On Supreme Court Nominee Brett Kavanaugh og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'Like Mexico Is Paying for the Wall': Retiring Sen. Corker and President Trump Trade Twitter Barbs twitter:description: #AlertTheDaycareStaff twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt13b2af5077271cdf/69894233b21a9cb6cf4ffc85/Corker-Trump-false-claim.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 'Like Mexico Is Paying for the Wall': Retiring Sen. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: The Government Partially Shut Down at Midnight. Here's What That Means [Watch (HLS stream): The Government Partially Shut Down at Midnight. Here's What That Means](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/2owmmkp5.m3u8) (1:09)  _Published 2018-12-22. The Senate failed to pass a spending bill that included the $5 billion President Donald Trump demanded for a border wall by Friday at midnight, and now the government is partially shutdown._  by [Alejandro de la Garza](https://time.com/author/alejandro-de-la-garza/)  ## Alejandro de la Garza Dec 23, 2018 10:13 PM UTC  Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) speaks to reporters at the U.S. Capitol, October 3, 2018 in Washington, DC. Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) speaks to reporters at the U.S. Capitol, October 3, 2018 in Washington, DC. Getty Images  by [Alejandro de la Garza](https://time.com/author/alejandro-de-la-garza/)  ## Alejandro de la Garza Dec 23, 2018 10:13 PM UTC Outgoing [Sen. Bob Corker](http://time.com/5009997/bob-corker-donald-trump-doj-democrats/) criticized Donald Trump on Twitter Sunday after the President lashed out at the Tennessee Republican. In a series of tweets, Trump claimed that Corker abandoned a plan to run for a third Senate term because the President would not endorse him. “\[Senator Corker\] wanted to run but poll numbers TANKED when I wouldn’t endorse him,” the President tweeted. > [](https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1076929590050897920) Shortly after, the retiring senator responded to the claim with [his own jab](https://twitter.com/SenBobCorker/status/1076935303158476800). “Yes, just like Mexico is paying for the wall… #AlertTheDaycareStaff,” Corker wrote, referencing the President’s campaign pledges to make Mexico pay for a border wall and the current government shutdown over federal funding for the initiative. The President then falsely stated that the senator was responsible for the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which Trump and his allies have long disparaged as “the worst deal ever.” Trump announced his decision to withdraw from the Obama-era deal in May. “Bob Corker was responsible for giving us the horrible Iran Nuclear Deal, which I ended, yet he badmouths me for wanting to bring our young people safely back home,” the President claimed. > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1076935567760338944) The Iran responsibility claim is a line that the President has used against the senator on several occasions, and one that has been [repeatedly repudiated](https://twitter.com/MicahTNDC/status/1076937995981344774). Back in 2017, the President [claimed](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/10/us/politics/trump-corker-iran-deal.html) “Bob Corker gave us the Iran Deal, and that’s about it,” despite the fact that Corker repeatedly spoke out against the pact and [authored legislation](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/10/11/trump-claim-corker-responsible-iran-nuclear-deal-isnt-supported-facts/754103001/) that created a process for lawmakers to review and eventually vote on the deal. Before Corker’s bipartisan legislative action, Obama had planned to implement the pact without congressional approval. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5487755/trump-twitter-spat-corker/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5487755/trump-twitter-spat-corker/"},"headline":"'Like Mexico Is Paying for the Wall': Retiring Sen. 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