On the day he unofficially seized the Republican presidential nomination, Mitt Romney was at a Las Vegas fundraiser with the mercurial billionaire Donald Trump, raking in more than $2 million with the help of a man who epitomizes exuberant wealth even as Romney tries to shake the perception that he’s an out-of-touch elitist.

Romney is hoping the big-dollar donors that Trump attracts will outweigh the political risk of aligning himself with someone whose reality TV show catchphrase is “you’re fired” and who unapologetically insists that President Obama is not an American citizen.

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