Please don’t accuse me of being sexist, but ….
I always thought the term “fickle” was used to describe women. You know what I mean. Well, it appears two leading male political figures are rewriting the textbook definition of the word.
Donald Trump and Mitt Romney have said some really harsh things about each other.
Trump has called Romney, the Republican Party’s 2012 presidential nominee, a “loser” who once “begged” Trump for his endorsement. Trump said Romney would have “gotten on his knees” for the endorsement if the GOP candidate had told him to do so.
Romney, meanwhile, has called Trump a “fraud” and a “phony.” He has called the president a pathological liar.
Well, lo and behold! Romney is now running for the U.S. Senate from Utah; Sen. Orrin Hatch is retiring at the end of the year.
What do you suppose was the president’s reaction? He endorsed Romney, saying he will make a “great” U.S. senator.
And Romney? Why, he simply grabbed that endorsement, hugged it tight and thanked the president for the words of affirmation.
How long will this bromance last? Let’s assume Romney gets elected senator from Utah. I think it might endure right up until Romney delivers a harsh Senate floor speech denouncing a preposterous statement coming from Trump.
That, I suppose, presumes that a Sen. Romney hasn’t allowed himself to be emasculated by the GOP Senate leadership that tells him to keep his trap shut when he feels the urge to criticize the president.
Maybe I shouldn’t be too surprised that Trump and Mitt could bury the hatchet. Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry once called Trump a “cancer on conservatism”; he’s now energy secretary in the Trump administration. And didn’t Housing Secretary Ben Carson call Trump a “liar” when they were running for the GOP nomination in 2016?
Still, time will tell us quite a bit about the fickle nature of the Trump-Romney political relationship.