Two Republican senators turn on Donald Trump on same day with stinging attacks on 'undignified' President

'I don’t know why he lowers himself to such a low, low standard and debases our country in the way that he does'

A pair of senators from Donald Trump‘s own Republican Party launched stinging attacks on their leader on the same day. One accused the President of “debasing our country”.

Arizona’s Jeff Flake, who has repeatedly and publicly clashed with the US President, took to the Senate floor to announce he would not seek re-election in 2018.

He said he had “children and grandchildren to answer to,” adding that he would not be “complicit” in going along with “reckless, outrageous and undignified behaviour”.

“We must never meekly accept the daily sundering of our country – the personal attacks, the threats against principles, freedoms, and institutions, the flagrant disregard for truth or decency, the reckless provocations, most often for the pettiest and most personal reasons,” Mr Flake said.

He reportedly received a standing ovation from fellow Arizonan Senator John McCain, Wyoming’s John Barrasso and Bob Corker, who had earlier made his own feelings about Mr Trump abundantly clear.

“He’s obviously not going to rise to the occasion as President,” said Mr Corker, the chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee. He added that “the debasement of our nation” would be what Mr Trump “will be remembered most for”.

He said: “I’ve been with him on multiple occasions to create some kind of aspirational approach, if you will, to the way he conducts himself. But I don’t think that that’s possible. Unfortunately, I think world leaders are very aware that much of what he says is untrue.

“I don’t know why he lowers himself to such a low, low standard and debases our country in the way that he does.”

The President fired back in typical style by tweeting: “Corker dropped out of the race in Tennessee when I refused to endorse him, and now is only negative on anything Trump. Look at his record!”

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, dismissed Mr Corker and Mr Flake as “petty” and said their decisions to step down next year were “probably the right” ones.

It is estimated that the President has personally attacked one in five of his own party’s senators.

The party has struggled to reconcile its more moderate, pro-business wing with the growing numbers of populists and nationalists who fuelled Mr Trump’s political rise.

The President – a former Democrat with no ideological mooring to conservative principles or deep ties to the party’s leaders – appears to have widened the gulf between millions of Republican voters and the congressional leaders sent to Washington to represent them.

Privately, many Republican officials have raised concerns about the direction in which Mr Trump is pulling the party, both on policy and tone.

He has moved it right on immigration and pulled out of a key Pacific Rim trade deal, attacked Germany, the FBI and London mayor Sadiq Khan.

The President has also drawn open support from some white nationalists.

Peter Wehner, a Trump critic who served in President George W Bush’s White House, said there was a “struggle going on for the soul of conservatism and the Republican Party”.

He said: “If this party is defined by Donald Trump and Steve Bannon, then a lot of these people aren’t going to want to be a part of that party anyway.”

Aside from occasional criticism of Mr Trump’s tweets or his most callous comments, most Republican office holders have stayed silent, in part out of fear of alienating the President’s supporters.

Additional reporting by agencies