Romney Lectures Trump Donors Over 2024

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), never to be confused with a conservative Republican, is now on record advising his party colleagues how they should approach the 2024 presidential election.

This from the man who could not defeat the weak incumbent Barack Obama in 2012.

His stately advice was disseminated through an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal and targeted GOP donors. He opened by acknowledging the likely coronation of former President Donald Trump as the party’s nominee.

Then, however, he stated that any of the more than a dozen rivals to the former president could actually prevail if the race came down to only two possibilities. This would have to happen, he obviously noted, before Trump wraps up the nomination.

Romney, who has never hidden his disdain for the former president, compared the current Republican situation to 2016.

That year, he explained, donors and supporters were not successful in convincing candidates who no longer had a shot to exit the stage.

This time, Romney urged, should be different.

If lapped Republican candidates are convinced to ride off into the sunset, then in the senator’s view it could open the door for a successful challenger to Trump. He called for Feb. 26, after the GOP showdowns in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina, to be the drop dead date.

Of course, this lecture from Romney only served as a reminder of his fierce opposition to the most popular Republican in the field by far. There is no love lost between the pair, especially considering his votes to impeach his party colleague.

It was two short years ago when Romney was booed at the Utah GOP convention, and no one was happier with that development than the former president.

Trump responded to the senator’s embarrassment by calling him a “stone cold loser” and again referred to him as a RINO — Republican In Name Only.

Now Romney is telling Republican donors that they need to whittle the 2024 GOP primary race down to two candidates. One would obviously be Trump, and he doesn’t name a preference for number two.

If his experience as a failed presidential candidate should have taught him anything, it was that turning his back on conservative Republicans is a clear blueprint for defeat. The party would be best served by doing exactly the opposite of what Romney endorses.

Now and in the future.