Administration

Gingrich: Trump supporters would be disappointed with Romney as secretary of State

Donald Trump’s supporters would be “enormously disappointed” if the president-elect nominates Mitt Romney to be secretary of State, Newt Gingrich said Sunday. 

{mosads}Romney is reportedly at the top of the list to be the nation’s top diplomat in the new administration, but he was highly critical of Trump’s campaign, once calling him a “fraud” and a “con man.” 

“I think there’s nothing Mitt Romney can say that doesn’t sound phony and frankly, pathetic,” Gingrich said on Fox News. 

“He called Trump vicious and vile things … And the idea that now that Trump has won that Mitt Romney would suddenly decide to issue a mea culpa and say, ‘Oh, gee, all the vicious things I said about you when you were running I didn’t really mean.'” 

Gingrich continued: “He sure did mean them, and he sure did try to defeat Donald Trump.” 

In March, Romney, the 2012 GOP nominee, dedicated an entire speech to condemning Trump’s candidacy, warning that the future would be bleak with him in the White House.  

“I think speaking for most of the Trump supporters, while we support President-elect Trump in whatever he does, I think we would be enormously disappointed if he brought Mitt into any position of authority,” Gingrich said Sunday. 

Top Trump aide Kellyanne Conway expressed similar feelings on Sunday, saying many Trump supporters and loyalists would consider a Romney nomination a “betrayal.”

“I’m all for party unity, but I’m not sure we have to pay for that with the secretary of State position,” Conway said.   

“It’s just breathtaking in scope and intensity the type of messages I’ve received from all over the country … the number of people who feel betrayed to think that Gov. Romney would get the most prominent Cabinet post after he went so far out of his way to hurt Donald Trump.”