Only two things are clear as President-elect Trump and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney meet for the second time on Tuesday: Romney isn’t responding to the increasingly vocal campaign against him, and the final decision is Trump’s.
The dust-up has, not for the first time, created the impression that Trump’s team is in turmoil. But the only two people we haven’t heard from are Romney and Trump.
Early riders of the Trump Train don’t want to let Romney onboard as secretary of state. Neither do some conservatives who thought Romney was too moderate when he was the Republican presidential nominee four years ago.
“The very idea of Mitt Romney as Secretary of State — or any other cabinet position in a Trump administration — is a slap to his supporters,” said longtime conservative activist Brent Bozell in a statement provided to the Washington Examiner. “Plenty of people (myself included) opposed the President-elect, but virtually all endorsed him once he was the nominee. Not so Romney and the DC elites.”
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich told Fox News on Sunday that Trump supporters would be “enormously disappointed” if Romney would up in “any position of authority.”
It is one thing for activists and grassroots supporters to lobby the incoming administration over personnel choices. But the extent to which members of Trump’s inner circle have spoken out against a hypothetical Romney nomination is highly unusual. Trump’s own campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, has suggested picking Romney would be viewed as a betrayal.
Questions persist about whether the high-profile anti-Romney chatter is a source of irritation for Trump or it serves some purpose for the president-elect. One report described Trump as “furious” with Conway, another suggested she wasn’t going rogue at all.
All the while, Trump has continued to interview other potential candidates for the job. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a top Trump surrogate, has given every public indication he wants the position. Trump met with retired Gen. David Petraeus Monday and will huddle with Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., Tuesday.
Romney has remained silent in the face of public opposition and has kept lines of communication open with Trump. “He hasn’t said anything to anyone about his meeting with the president-elect,” said a source who worked on Romney’s presidential campaign. “I think it speaks to his commitment to public service that he would consider this and Trump deserves credit for reaching out.”
“Nobody has any idea what is going on here,” confessed another Republican strategist. Others suggested there is nothing unusual about Romney’s advice being sought by the president-elect and that he would likely continue to offer confidential counsel when asked regardless of whether he is offered a job.
Romney opposed Trump in highly personal terms, calling him a “fraud” and a “phony.” But the president-elect’s staunchest backers take the slings and arrows from “Never Trump” quite personally too.
Much of the opposition to Romney has come from people who support other candidates for secretary of state or possibly are candidates themselves. Those who supported Trump when it seemed a politically risky thing to do believe they should take precedent over the Republicans who threatened to marginalize them.
Others worry that Trump would wind up with a Cabinet this is too establishment-friendly and insufficiently loyal. Conservative columnist Ann Coulter, author of In Trump We Trust, complained that other than Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., his picks so far haven’t been much different than Jeb Bush’s might have been.
“I think it is a big ask for the Trump grassroots loyalists to forgive so quickly and then be okay with such a big gift,” said a prominent Trump supporter with government experience. “Romney spoke for the establishment who mocked Trump supporters and threatened to make sure Trump surrogates never worked in GOP politics again.”
“Most people want to see a united party going forward,” the Trump supporter added, “but that doesn’t mean Romney gets rewarded in such a big way.”
Longtime Trump ally Roger Stone put it more colorfully, as is his wont. “You can invite a whore to church but don’t ask her to lead the choir,” he told the Daily Caller.
This has raised questions about whether Trump intends to humiliate Romney by having him publicly audition for a subordinate role, perhaps even apologize for his campaign rhetoric and then ultimately turn him down in favor of some other candidate for the job.
“I take the president-elect at his word that he is sincerely interested,” said a former Romney employee. “In the end, it is only one man’s choice.”
On Tuesday, we might see more of how Trump liked to work when he was a reality TV star, when he created dramatic and suspenseful choices between candidates who divided his advisers, and sought advice, but did not tip his hand before the show reached its climax.
