Romney should withdraw from secretary of State consideration

When it became known that President-elect Donald Trump was considering former Massachusetts Gov. and 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney for secretary of State, I applauded the move here in The Hill.

Romney is a major national figure with vast knowledge of the world who would make an outstanding secretary of State. When he ran for president in 2012, and debated President Obama, Romney took a far more clear and strong position toward Russia than Obama. In my view, Romney has been proven right in his assessment, and Obama has been proven wrong.

{mosads}What happened since Romney first met Trump as a potential secretary of State has been correctly categorized as akin to a television reality show. Romney jumped through the hoops of meeting with Trump, discussing national security at length, and praising the president-elect after they met.

From the moment of Romney’s praise of Trump after their foreign policy discussion there has been a demeaning spectacle of people close to Trump — such as his campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway — aggressively attacking Romney in the media, a period of meetings with potential nominees that was described as culminating in a short list of four finalists, followed by word that Trump was not satisfied with the four finalists and was beginning interviews with other candidates.

While this revolving-door roadshow continued, Trump conducted a controversial conversation with the leader of Taiwan, posted attack tweets against China, and appeared to threaten a global trade war of aggressive tariffs and high taxes against countries or companies that take actions he disapproves of.

It makes sense, in principle, to take tougher negotiating positions on trade with China and other trading partners. But these positions should be taken after serious deliberations with leading experts offering a diversity of opinion, resulting in intelligent presidential decisions and not Twitter attacks, angry rants or impulsive statements.

Around the world today, there are democratic allies of the United States who are deeply worried about the danger of conducting foreign and international economic policy through Twitter wars, or poorly considered statements and actions taken without sufficient knowledge of the facts.

Romney would perform a service, to himself and the nation, to gracefully withdraw from consideration as secretary of State. He need not and should not retract either his previous criticism of Trump or his recent praise.

He should merely say that he appreciates the consideration but would rather serve our country as a private citizen occasionally offering his informed views, hopefully supportive of what the president-elect does after he takes office; if necessary, in opposition.

While my view is that there is little to no chance that Trump selects Romney for Foggy Bottom based on the way the 2012 GOP nominee for president has been treated in recent days, Romney could perform an important public service by taking his name out of consideration whether his selection is likely or not.

Mitt Romney’s dropping out would send a powerful signal to President-elect Trump, his transition team, and the major media that at a time of significant danger for the world, the choice of a secretary of state, and the words and actions of a president-elect, should be treated with far more professionalism and seriousness of purpose than the president-elect has demonstrated on some key recent matters.

Brent Budowsky was an aide to former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas) and former Chief Deputy Majority Whip Bill Alexander (D-Ark.). He holds an LL.M. degree in international financial law from the London School of Economics. Contact him at brentbbi@webtv.net.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the views of The Hill.