US Republican Senator Bob Corker blasts President Donald Trump for ‘publicly castrating’ Rex Tillerson

This AFP file photo taken on February 16, 2017 shows Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Senator Bob Corker speaking on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.

US Republican Senator Bob Corker has condemned President Donald Trump for undermining Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, as the senior lawmaker steps up his public feud with the leader of his own party.

Corker told The Washington Post in an interview on Friday that Trump’s public statements on foreign policy "castrate" his top diplomat and creates "binary" scenarios for the US on the world stage.

“You cannot publicly castrate your own secretary of state” without limiting the options for dealing with North Korea, Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations committee, told the newspaper.

NBC News reported last week that Tillerson called Trump a “moron” after a national security meeting in July and was on the verge of resigning amid mounting policy disputes with the White House.

Corker, who represents the state of Tennessee, said Trump had undercut Tillerson’s efforts to enlist China in reining in North Korea’s nuclear program by denigrating the diplomat.

“When you jack the legs out from under your chief diplomat, you cause all that to fall apart,” Corker told the Post, adding that working with China was the key to reaching a peaceful settlement with North Korea.

“The greatest diplomatic activities we have are with China, and the most important, and they have come a long, long way,” Corker said. “Some of the things we are talking about are phenomenal.”

Tillerson told a news conference in Beijing two weeks ago that Washington was directly communicating with Pyongyang on its nuclear and missile programs but it had shown no interest in dialogue.

In a tweet the following day, Trump said Tillerson was “wasting his time” trying to negotiate with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

Corker has previously defended Tillerson and cited the top US diplomat and US Defense Secretary James Mattis as some of the people who "help separate our country from chaos."

Corker, who has announced he is not going to seek re-election after 2018, has publicly quarreled with Trump on social media recently.

Earlier this week, Corker spared with Trump in a war of words over Twitter, saying "It's a shame the White House has become an adult day care center. Someone obviously missed their shift this morning."

Corker also criticized Trump’s response to the deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August, saying his lack of "stability and competence" threatens the country.

He said Trump needs to understand that he represents all Americans and his role in advocating hate is jeopardizing the US.