Conservative author defends Corker in feud with Trump

Former conservative talk show host Charlie Sykes on Sunday defended Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) for suggesting President Trump acts childish, calling the president an “erratic narcissist.”

Sykes, who has never been a Trump supporter, said the real estate mogul’s actions for the past two years should have been an early warning sign that the commander in chief does not act rationally.

“Anyone who has paid any attention to Donald Trump over the last two years should not be actually surprised by any of this. I mean, he’s an erratic narcissist, a serial liar,” Sykes told host Brian Stelter on CNN’s “Reliable Sources.”

{mosads}”Someone who went through a campaign mocking women and the disabled. Thin-skinned, vindictive — all of those things that we saw during the campaign that for whatever reason the conservative movement decided to embrace, enable, or rationalize — now we are seeing it playing out in the White House,” he continued.

Sykes said Corker is among the Republican lawmakers who are now becoming more willing to speak out against Trump. 

The public feud between Trump and the retiring GOP senator became heated Sunday when the two prominent politicians took to Twitter to exchange disparaging remarks.

The president first took aim at Corker, claiming the senator had sought his endorsement in the upcoming 2018 midterms — a backing he says he refused to grant.

Corker’s chief of staff denied the claim, saying the president had actually encouraged the GOP lawmaker to run again and urged him not to retire, a decision Corker announced last month.

“It’s a shame the White House has become an adult day care center. Someone obviously missed their shift this morning,” Corker tweeted, implying the president is immature and in need of adult supervision.

Sykes, author of “How the Right Lost Its Mind,” said Corker’s tweet showed he has reached a tipping point where he can no longer suppress his feelings that Trump is “unstable.”

“Guys like Bob Corker, I think, have reached a point where it is like, ‘Can we not pretend the emperor is not naked? Can we not pretend the emperor is not unstable in a way that we should’ve understood very, very clearly more than a year or two years ago?’ ” Sykes said.