Mitt Romney didn’t pull punches back on March 3, 2016, and what’s happening today brings those words painfully front and center.
From the stage at the University of Utah, he called Donald Trump a “fraud” and said that “a business genius he is not.” It was one of the most scathing speeches ever delivered by a party’s former presidential nominee against the then front-runner – and in his own party, no less.
Romney, who’d lost the 2012 election to Barack Obama, wasn’t trying to win the presidency again. He said as much. But he was clearly trying to stop Trump from doing just that. “He gets a free ride to the White House, and all we get is a lousy hat,” Romney jabbed, mocking Trump’s red-cap populism.
Listen to that powerful moment again and how those words were taken by the assembled crowd:
“Isn’t he a huge business success? Doesn’t he know what he’s talking about? No, he isn’t and no he doesn’t.” pic.twitter.com/oQpqzuHd7G
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) April 7, 2025
Why did Romney speak out?
The final straw, he later said, was Trump’s waffling over disavowing former KKK leader David Duke. But Romney had been simmering for weeks, frustrated by Trump’s rise, disgusted by his rhetoric, and concerned by what it all said about the Republican base.
Romney’s warning was simple enough: Trump would wreck the GOP and lose to Hillary Clinton. He urged Republicans to tactically vote for whichever remaining candidate – Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, or John Kasich – had the best chance to stop Trump in each state. The goal was to deny him a delegate majority and trigger a contested convention.
What did Trump say to Romney?
As you may have expected, Trump fired back within hours. He called Romney a “choke artist,” ridiculed his 2012 loss, and said that Romney had once begged for his endorsement. “I could have said, ‘Mitt, drop to your knees,’ and he would have dropped to his knees,” Trump told a crowd in Maine in typical fashion.
He wasn’t done. Later, he mocked Romney’s stiff gait: “He walks like a penguin.”
How Romney’s Trump attack backfired
Romney’s call to arms was met with applause from moderates and immediate dismissal by Trump’s growing base. A poll days later showed that more Republicans said they were more likely to vote for Trump after Romney’s speech than less.
Even as Cruz briefly surged in early March, Trump rebounded. By May, he had won Indiana, Cruz and Kasich had dropped out, and Trump was the presumptive Republican nominee.
Romney refused to endorse him, skipped the Republican convention, and flirted with backing a third-party candidate. His prediction that Trump would lose to Clinton? That didn’t age well either.
Now back in the White House for a second term, Trump is changing the world order with his America First strategy. While most people not caught up in his MAGA following predict more pain for all, history will have to be the judge of how close Romney was to the truth.
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