Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney was one of Donald Trump’s most outspoken conservative critics in the primaries, but he had nothing but praise for the new president in a recent interview with Deseret News.
“We’re all watching with interest,” Romney said of the Trump administration’s first weeks. “He’s obviously gotten off to a very strong start in terms of making a series of executive orders and making the changes that he promised during the campaign.”
As far as his biting criticism of Trump, Romney said he had no regrets.
“I expressed honestly what my belief was with regards to temperament and character. Now the time has come for us to recognize we have a new president and we have hopes he will be successful leading our country,” Romney said.
He also said that he held no ill will towards the president for passing him over for Secretary of State.
“I had very good meetings with, at that point, President-elect Trump,” Romney said. He told the paper that he appreciated Trump being “willing to talk to me, given the fact that I had been so critical.”
It took a while, but Romney – along with several other members of the NeverTrump movement – seems to finally be coming around to the new world order of American conservatism. Perhaps they haven’t changed their internal opinions, but they are at least starting to recognize the futility of resistance. The Republican Party of old has been replaced. We could say it’s Trump’s party, but it’s more accurate to say it’s the people’s party. It’s still grounded in conservative theory, but it doesn’t substitute “being right” for “getting things done.” That’s a big improvement.
Still, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Trump won, but there’s still a long fight ahead. There are already signs of dissension from congressional Republicans. And the media is on the warpath.
The 2016 election was a pivotal moment in American politics, but the next four years will determine whether we are able to truly take this extraordinary movement all the way and change the course of our nation’s direction.
