Romney Speech Preview: ‘Donald Trump is a Phony, a Fraud’

Trump and Romney
Julie Jacobson/AP
Joel B. Pollak

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has released excerpts of the speech that he will give this morning at the University of Utah on the “state of the race” — and it is clear that a major focus of his address will be bashing GOP frontrunner Donald J. Trump.

Romney plans to say:

Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud. His promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University. He’s playing the American public for suckers. He gets a free ride to the White House and all we get is a lousy hat.

His domestic policies would lead to recession. His foreign policies would make America and the world less safe. He has neither the temperament nor the judgment to be president. And his personal qualities would mean that America would cease to be a shining city on a hill.

Fox News reported early Thursday morning that Romney also plans to praise the foreign policy plans put forward by Trump’s remaining rivals, Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Marco Rubio (R-FL), and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.

It is not clear whether Romney intends to endorse any of Trump’s rivals. At the moment, Cruz and Rubio are effectively splitting the vote, and Kasich has been accused of taking votes from Rubio in Virginia on Super Tuesday.

Romney could also be signaling his availability as an alternative candidate, should Trump fail to win an absolute majority of Republican delegates, and fail to secure the nomination on the first ballot at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland this summer.

Trump has already responded, on Twitter:

Breitbart News will be live at the speech, which will be at 11:30 a.m. EST at the at Libby Gardner Hall at the University of Utah, sponsored by the university’s Hinckley Institute.

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