FILE - In this June 22, 2017, file photo, Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., walks to the floor for votes at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, June 22, 2017. Sen. Bob Corker is hardly the only Republican lambasting Donald Trump and raising dark concerns about harm the president might cause the U.S. and the world. He’s just the only one who’s sounding off in public. A couple Republican senators who did have something to say on Oct, 9 aligned themselves with Trump, not Corker. Daines “has confidence in the president,” his office said. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
FILE - In this June 22, 2017, file photo, Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., walks to the floor for votes at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, June 22, 2017. Sen. Bob Corker is hardly the only Republican lambasting Donald Trump and raising dark concerns about harm the president might cause the U.S. and the world. He’s just the only one who’s sounding off in public. A couple Republican senators who did have something to say on Oct, 9 aligned themselves with Trump, not Corker. Daines “has confidence in the president,” his office said. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File) Credit: J. Scott Applewhite

Washington — President Donald Trump lashed out at Sen. Bob Corker as “Liddle’ Bob Corker” on Tuesday, continuing a feud with the Tennessee Republican who’s dubbed the White House an “adult day care center” and charged that Trump could be setting the nation on the path toward World War III.

Fellow GOP senators, treading carefully, avoided siding with Trump or Corker. But leading lawmakers called on both men to end a quarrel that could imperil the Republican agenda on Capitol Hill. Trump will need Corker if he is to get big tax changes through the Senate, where the narrow GOP majority was unable to repeal Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act. And Corker also figures to be a key player if Trump moves as expected to unwind the Iran nuclear deal.

“I have a lot of respect for Sen. Corker and what he brings to the Senate, but I think the president is leading in the right direction and I’m supportive of what he’s doing,” Sen. Roy Blunt, of Missouri, a member of the GOP leadership, told reporters on Tuesday. “I would encourage them both to stop what they’re doing and get focused on what we need to be doing.”

Blunt’s comments followed a plea from GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley at a town hall meeting in Jefferson, Iowa, on Monday for Trump and Corker to “cool it.”

“And I think it would help if the president would be the first to cool it,” Grassley said. “I think it would be better if we stuck to the issues and leave personalities out of it.”

Trump’s tweet on Tuesday alleged that Corker was “set up” by “the failing” New York Times in a recorded interview on Sunday. Corker, who is not running for re-election, leveled searing criticism at Trump and said his conduct “would have to concern anyone who cares about our nation.”

In the interview, Corker said Trump could set the U.S. “on the path to World War III” with threats toward other countries.