Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, wrote in a letter to the editor Saturday that while he was “surprised” by President-elect Trump’s interest in appointing him to state secretary despite negative comments about the 2016 GOP nominee, he would have been “willing” to serve in the Cabinet.
“My political journey was surely not so bizarre as the 2016 campaign. That said, let me offer this personal perspective. I was indeed very critical of Donald Trump during his campaign. But now he has been elected president and accordingly, if I could have helped shape foreign policy to protect the country I love, I would have been more than willing to do so.
“I was more than a little surprised that the president-elect reached out to me to potentially serve as secretary of state of the United States,” Romney wrote to the Salt Lake City Tribune.
The former Massachusetts governor said he sees Trump’s serious consideration of him for a Cabinet position as a “welcome sign” that the incoming president is “open to alternative views and even to critics.”
“I earnestly hope that he will be successful in fostering greater prosperity and peace. I believe all Americans can join in that wish,” Romney concluded.
Roger Stone, a veteran political strategist and longtime friend to Trump, said earlier this month that the billionaire businessman only pretended to seriously consider Romney for secretary of state so he could “toy with him” for opposing Trump during the general election. Some of Trump’s advisers — Kellyanne Conway and Newt Gingrich — also publicly decried Romney for refusing to wholeheartedly support the GOP nominee before the election and his about-face since Republicans won back the White House.
In an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” in late November, Conway had said a “number of people” would feel “betrayed” if Trump selected Romney for a coveted Cabinet position because the 2012 GOP presidential nominee attacked Trump throughout the election.
“I don’t want to see a president of the United States saying things which change the character of the generations of Americans that are following,” Romney had told CNN in June. “Presidents have an impact on the nature of our nation, and trickle-down racism and trickle-down bigotry and trickle-down misogyny — all of these things are extraordinarily dangerous to the heart and character of America.”
Romney had been under consideration for the job for weeks. He met with Trump and incoming chief of staff Reince Priebus multiple times, including once for dinner in Manhattan. Priebus said Romney and Trump, both from the northeast region of the country, also talked about sports and a mutual love for Tom Brady, the quarterback for the NFL’s New England Patriots. Priebus also said Trump had Romney laughing so hard that he cried.
Trump and Romney also discussed the harsh remarks both made about each other during the primary and general election season, according to Priebus.
Following the meeting, Romney praised Trump’s professionalism in a possible attempt to make up for his comments earlier this year bashing the billionaire businessman as a man whose leadership would trigger “trickle-down racism.”
“The last few weeks he’s been carrying out a transition effort and I have to tell you I’ve been impressed by what I’ve seen in the transition effort. The people he’s selected as members of his Cabinet are solid, effective, capable people,” Romney told members of the press the night after the dinner. “What I’ve seen through these discussions I’ve had with President-elect Trump, as well as what we’ve seen in his speech at the night of his victory — as well as the people he’s selected as part of his transition — all of those things combined give me increasing hope that President-elect Trump is the very man who can lead us to that better future.”
Trump, in turn, applauded Romney in an interview with Fox News two days later.
“It was good. We got along very well. He was very, very nice — very nice in terms of his remarks afterwards,” Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity in a pre-taped interview that aired the first week of December.
Trump announced this week that Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson was his pick to lead the State Department. Tillerson will have to confirmed by the Senate, which could prove challenging in light of Democrats’ stated concerns about his work with Russia in the oil business.
