Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said Wednesday that billionaire businessman Donald Trump will not secure the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.
“I will support the Republican nominee. I don’t think that’s going to be Donald Trump,” the 2012 GOP nominee said at the Washington Ideas Forum.
{mosads}”My party has historically nominated someone who is a mainstream conservative and someone who has a foundation of foreign policy that gives people confidence that they can guide the ship of State in trouble waters,” Romney said.
He pointed to the real estate tycoon’s comments aired Sunday regarding the U.S. strategy to combat the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
“Now let me just say this: ISIS in Syria, [Syrian President Bashar] Assad in Syria, Assad and ISIS are mortal enemies. We go in to fight ISIS. Why aren’t we letting ISIS go and fight Assad and then we pick up the remnants?” Trump said on CBS’s “60 Minutes.”
Romney, who has previously chided Trump, slammed those remarks on Wednesday.
“I thought that was both absurd and dangerous,” Romney said. “I just don’t think that that kind of proposal is likely to lead him to become our nominee.”
Trump endorsed Romney during the 2012 election against President Obama, then later knocked the two-time White House contender as a bad candidate.
Trump also said Romney “choked” during that race when the former governor flirted with a third White House bid early this year before ultimately deciding against it.
Romney’s remarks Wednesday came after his wife Ann Romney, when asked about Trump, commented Tuesday on the uptick in engagement among Americans in the 2016 race.