The incoming senator said the president’s character „falls short“ in an op-ed in the Washington Post.
Mitt Romney is back to criticizing President Donald Trump — even as the president calls on him to be a “team player” and compares him to a now-former senator whose attacks were all bark and little bite.
Romney, who will be sworn in as a senator representing Utah on Thursday, kicked off the new year with an op-ed in the Washington Post published on Tuesday, criticizing Trump for not having “risen to the mantle” of the presidency. He wrote that Trump’s character “falls short.”
“With the nation so divided, resentful and angry, presidential leadership in qualities of character is indispensable. And it is in this province where the incumbent’s shortfall has been most glaring,” Romney wrote.
He clarified that there are areas of Trump’s policy agenda he approves of — unsurprisingly, the more typical Republican priorities such as tax cuts, deregulation, and conservative judge appointments. Despite his past criticism of Trump’s “trade wars,” Romney also applauded Trump’s decision to “crack down on China’s unfair trade practices.”
“I will support policies that I believe are in the best interest of the country and my state, and oppose those that are not. I do not intend to comment on every tweet or fault,” Romney wrote, providing a preview of how he plans to handle Trump questions from the press on Capitol Hill.
The response to Romney’s op-ed from Trump’s camp was, of course, not one of particular excitement.
On Wednesday morning, Trump responded in a tweet, asking whether Romney would be “a Flake.” It was a reference to former Sen. Jeff Flake, the Arizona Republican who often lamented and criticized Trump but ultimately failed to do much in terms of serving as a check on the president and instead retired from the Senate.
