Sen. Mitt Romney said that the 2024 Republican presidential nomination will go to former President Donald Trump if he wants it.
While the Utah Republican cautioned that “a lot can happen between now and 2024,” he said Mr. Trump is the dominant figure in the party.
“I don’t know if he’ll run in 2024 or not, but if he does, I’m pretty sure he will win the nomination,” Mr. Romney said at the DealBook D.C. Policy Project.
“I look at the polls, and the polls show that among the names being floated as potential contenders in 2024, if you put President Trump in there among Republicans, he wins in a landslide,” he told The New York Times in the Project interview.
Mr. Romney has been Mr. Trump’s most consistent critic in his own party, twice voting to convict him in his impeachment trials, the only Republican to do so.
But he also acknowledged, when asked whether he could back a 2024 Trump run, that he represents a small part of the current GOP.
“I would not be voting for President Trump again. I haven’t voted for him in the past,” he said. “I would probably be getting behind somebody who I thought more represented the tiny wing of the Republican Party that I represent.”
Mr. Trump “has by far the largest voice” in the party, Mr. Romney said.
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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