Mitt Romney (L); Donald Trump.Photo: Felix Hörhager/picture alliance via Getty; MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty
Mitt RomneythinksDonald Trumpisn’t going anywhere, as much as he might wish otherwise.
The Utah senator talked about Trump’s political futurein an interview withTheNew York Timesthis week.
Romney, one of the most prominent Republicans opposing the 74-year-old former president, spoke candidly about the paradox of Trump’s role and what it means for other conservatives who have broken with him.
Romney, himself the 2012 Republican nominee for president, continued: “I expect he will continue playing a role. I don’t know if he’ll run in 2024 or not, but if he does I’m pretty sure he will win the nomination.”
Asked if he would campaign against Trump in the future, Romney (who once met with Trump about becoming secretary of state) said he would “not be voting for President Trump again — I haven’t voted for him in the past — and I would probably be getting behind somebody who I thought more represented the tiny wing of the Republican Party that I represent.”
When pressed on his belief that Trump would be able to clinch the 2024 Republican nomination — even after the fallout from the deadly U.S. Capitol attack and Trump’s second impeachment — Romney cited Trump’s enduring standing with the GOP base.
“I mean a lot can happen between now and 2024, and I’m not great at predicting … so I don’t really know what will happen there,” Romney said. “But I look at the polls and the polls show that among the names being floated as potential contenders in 2024, if you put President Trump in there, among Republicans, he wins in a landslide.”
The party has certainly seen fractures, though.
At apress conferenceon Wednesday Cheney said that Trump should not speak at the upcoming Conservative Political Action Conference in Florida … though House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, next to her, said that he should.
Romney, who has long been a vocal critic of Trump’s,lambasted the former presidentfor his role in inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection just hours after it took place.
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Even as Trump lost November’s election, he has touted the strength of the Republican ticket when he is running — particularly compared to how GOP candidates did in the 2018 midterms, without him on the ballot as well.
But he remains a divisive figure.
Tens of thousands of people who previously identified as Republicanchanged their voter registrationsin the wake of the attempted insurrection; and the wing of the party that had long resisted Trump’s push to reshape it again grew vocal.
“The Republican Party as I knew it no longer exists,” Jimmy Gurulé, who served as the undersecretary of the treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence under Bush, toldReutersearlier this month. “I’d call it the cult of Trump.”
Reuters also reported that more than 120 people — including GOP officials and former Trump staffers — participated in a recent call about potentiallycreating a third party, which would face immense logistical and political challenges.
Trump has been largely silent since flying to Palm Beach, Florida, after Joe Biden’s inauguration.
But he will wade back into public this weekend when he delivers his first major post-White House speech at CPAC) in Orlando, Florida.
Several reports indicate that he is expected to use the event tofloat the possibilityof running for president in 2024 and reassert his central role in Republican politics.
source: people.com
