Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump kept up his criticism of the party’s 2012 standard-bearer Mitt Romney Monday, calling him “a jealous guy” and someone who has “a lot of problems.”
Trump responded to Romney after the former Massachusetts governor hosted his retreat in Park City, Utah, during which he said that Trump’s rhetoric is “breaking my heart” and is akin to “trickle down racism.”
“Romney’s a loser. He lost the election badly. He should have won that election. That election was easier than this election. He should have won that election,” Trump said during a radio interview. “He choked. He was a choker. And I was very tough on him at the beginning, because we don’t want to give a choker — I backed him, but we don’t want to give a choker a second chance because we can’t afford to. He wasn’t going to win anyway. He would have choked the same way. Whatever happened, he was way off.”
“He lost by a lot,” Trump continued. “Now he goes around having meetings about Donald Trump. He ought to go into retirement and relax because he’s wasting a lot of people’s time.”
Trump then said that he believes Romney wants former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to defeat him in November before expressing his bewilderment at Romney’s continued attacks. Romney has been one of the most vocal opponents of Trump from within the Republican Party, but has declined to launch a third party bid.
“He’s a jealous guy,” Trump said. “He’s got a lot of problems. I watched his statement over the weekend. Actually, it was sort of sad and pathetic at the same time. It was pathetic, but it was sad, too, to watch him. There’s no reason for him to do this.”
