It would have been only slightly more shocking if Donald Trump nominated Hillary Clinton to a cabinet position. The news that Trump was considering Mitt Romney for secretary of state was almost too ridiculous to believe. Romney? The man who called Trump a “fraud” this spring in one of the most withering speeches in American political history? The man who encouraged Republican voters to strategically vote for whoever was most likely to defeat Trump in any given state? The man who said Trump was “playing the members of the American public for suckers”? That Mitt Romney?
As jarring as it was to see Ted Cruz finally come around to endorsing Trump, at least Cruz’s previous comments about the president-elect could be explained (sorta) by the spirit of competition. Romney wasn’t even in the race! He inserted himself into the primaries of his own accord, and there was even hope among NeverTrump conservatives that he might launch a third-party bid against Trump and Clinton. That candidacy never materialized, but Romney never softened his stance on Trump either.
But now, you’d think none of that ever happened. Just listen to Romney talk about Trump after his two-hour dinner with the president-elect on Tuesday night.
“I had a wonderful evening with President-elect Trump,” Romney said. “We had another discussion about affairs throughout the world, and these discussions I’ve had with him have been enlightening, and interesting and engaging.
“What I’ve seen through these discussions I’ve had with President-elect Trump, as well as what we’ve seen in his speech 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,” he said.
“And he continues with a message of inclusion and bringing people together and his vision is something which obviously connected with the American people in a very powerful way,” Romney continued. “It’s not easy winning. I know that myself. He did something I tried to do and was unsuccessful in accomplishing. He won the general election.”
Romney said he was confident that with Trump in the White House, America’s “best days” were still ahead.
So…we’re left with a few questions.
Is Trump just THAT good, that he can talk someone out of their convictions in a matter of hours? Perhaps. If so, that bodes well for America’s diplomatic relations around the world.
Or is Romney THAT desperate to get into the State Department? And if that’s the case, why? Just for the ol’ resume, or because he wants to get inside the Trump administration and steer it away from Trump’s philosophy?
Third possibility: Trump’s playing a game, but it’s not with Romney. Behind closed doors, he’s telling Mitt that he doesn’t give a damn about policy and that if Romney runs State, he can essentially make his own decisions.
Final – and perhaps brightest – possibility: That both Romney and Trump know that he’s not getting the nomination. They’re mending fences for the sake of party unity and Romney has agreed to say some nice stuff about Trump for the good of the Republican Party and the country as a whole.
If Trump winds up going with Giuliani or Corker or someone, then we can safely assume this was all for show. But if he chooses Romney, we deserve some hard answers to the above questions. Too many of them have deeply troubling implications.
Comments are closed.