Failed 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney offered lukewarm praise for President Trump over the weekend at his annual E2 summit — an appearance that included some rumblings of possibly yet another run for office from the former Massachusetts governor.
The annual summit in Utah, attracting wealthy Romney donors, political elites and business leaders, saw Romney declare that he and Trump are “not as far apart as I feared early on,” according to Utah’s KUER radio.
He reportedly pointed to Trump’s appointment of Justice Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court and Trump’s pro-business economic policies as areas where the two agree. He also agreed with Trump’s approach to NATO. Romney had been widely rumored to be in contention for the position of Secretary of State — but Trump eventually went with Rex Tillerson.
.@MittRomney: On FP, POTUS has made encouraging comments on NATO & he’s right to encourage them to move toward 2% GDP spending on defense. pic.twitter.com/rD2tuRnNxx
— E2 Summit (@E2Summit) June 9, 2017
In a Q&A, he called it “encouraging” that he had been considered for the position.
“I didn’t believe for a minute I could tell him what to do on any of those things, but I thought that that kind of openness was very encouraging,” Romney said. “And if he was willing to have me in that position, I would be anxious to serve because I love the country.
Yet the summit also raised the possibility that Romney is on maneuvers for a future run himself. According to Politico, in a closed-door appearance Friday, former Democratic Vice President Joe Biden floated the idea that Romney should run again — this time for the Senate.
Politico reported that Romney, who has previously spoken to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) about succeeding Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), merely smiled in response to the remark as the audience applauded.
Should Romney run again, it would mark the latest in a long line of attempts to seek high office. He challenged Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy for his Massachusetts Senate seat in 1994, before running for and winning the Massachusetts gubernatorial race in 2002.
In 2008, Romney ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination, being beaten by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), and lost to President Barack Obama after winning the nomination in 2012. He also considered running for the 2016 nomination, before deciding against it. However, he gave a speech in which he condemned Trump as “a phony, a fraud” before later allowing himself to be considered to be Trump’s Secretary of State.
Should he run for Senate in the future, it would mark the sixth time he has either run for office or seriously considered it.
Multiple Romney advisers told Politico that while a run remained unlikely, he was not yet prepared to close the door on it.
Adam Shaw is a politics reporter for Breitbart News based in New York. Follow Adam on Twitter: @AdamShawNY
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