Donald Trump succumbed to ‘tyranny of radio hosts’ over government shutdown: GOP senator

President Trump relented to the “tyranny of radio hosts” by refusing to sign a bill that would have prevented the federal government from partially shutting down Saturday, Sen. Bob Corker, Tennessee Republican, told reporters.

The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Mr. Corker made the remark after Mr. Trump abruptly decided Thursday against signing a bill keeping the government funded through Feb. 2018, reversing course amid coming under fire from right-wing media personalities Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh.

“Do we succumb to tyranny of radio talk show hosts?” Mr. Corker said Friday, CNN first reported. “We have two talk radio hosts who influenced the president — that’s tyranny isn’t it?”

“I mean, this is a juvenile place we find ourselves,” Mr. Corker added, according to The Daily Beast. “The reason we’re here is that we have a couple talk-radio hosts that get the president spun up.”

Mr. Trump previously said he would sign the bill despite lawmakers excluding funding for the wall he proposed building at the Mexican border, prompting complaints from conservative commentators typically supportive of his policies, including both Ms. Coulter and Mr. Limbaugh, among others.

Without a wall, Ms. Coulter said Wednesday, Mr. Trump will “just have been a joke presidency who scammed the American people, amused the populist for a while, but he’ll have no legacy whatsoever.”

“Trump gets nothing and the Democrats get everything, including control of the House in a few short weeks.” Mr. Limbaugh said earlier this week.

The White House did not immediately return a request for comment.

Mr. Trump has demanded lawmakers include $5 billion in the funding bill specifically destined toward building the president’s proposed border wall, notwithstanding opposition from Democrats on Capitol Hill.

The federal government began a partial shutdown at midnight Saturday morning after lawmakers failed to pass a spending bill.