War Of Words Rages On Between ‘Demagogue’ Donald Trump & ‘Ungrateful’ Mitt Romney As Romney Mulls A Third-Party Run

While some prominent Republicans are finally coming around to the inevitability of Donald Trump’s nomination as the GOP’s candidate for president, Mitt Romney is not about to book a trip on the so-called “Trump Train.” Indeed, the 2012 Republican nominee continues throwing shade at his 2016 successor while the “Never Trump” movement contemplates casting Romney as a third-party candidate against Trump in the general election. Mitt Romney’s most recent jab at Donald Trump was subtler than previous attacks, but everyone – including Trump himself – appears to have gotten the message.

“Demagogues on the right and the left draw upon our darker angels, scapegoating immigrants and Muslims or bankers and business people,” Romney said at a commencement speech on Saturday, May 7 at Trine University in Angola, Indiana. While Romney’s comments regarding prejudice against Muslims and immigrants clearly targeted Trump, Romney also appeared to take a swipe at Bernie Sanders’ criticisms of Wall Street.

The following day, Donald Trump renewed his attack on Mitt Romney, haranguing the former Massachusetts governor for his failed presidential campaign in 2012. Trump said that Romney was “ungrateful” for the real estate mogul’s assistance during the race and he also took credit for the limited success of Romney’s campaign in certain parts of the country.

“I believe I won him, or helped him win five states that he was going to lose in the primaries,” Trump said on comments transcribed by NBC News. “I raised a lot of money for him. I ruined the carpet in my apartments — I had so many people come. We actually had to have two fundraisers because there were so many people.”

It remains entirely possibly that Donald Trump and Mitt Romney might still come face to face as rival candidates in the present election, especially if some key Republicans get their way. As reported by The Washington Post, Romney met with influential conservative William Kristol last week to discuss the possibility of a run against Donald Trump. Kristol later spoke to media about their discussions, acknowledging that they discussed a bit of strategy moving forward.

“He came pretty close to being elected president, so I thought he may consider doing it, especially since he has been very forthright in explaining why Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton should not be president of the United States,” Kristol said. “It was not like, ‘You should do it.’ I wouldn’t presume he’d do it. But I’m hoping that he begins to think about it a little more … His name is one of the names that is part of the discussion,” he added.

Although Mitt Romney appears to be an enduring stalwart for the “Never Trump” camp until the final votes are cast in November, 2008 Republican nominee John McCainhas finally thrown his support behind Donald Trump. As reported by The Inquisitr, McCain recently endorsed Trump, despite the billionaire candidate’s incendiary comments about McCain’s service as a veteran during a public event in 2015. In backing Trump, John McCain added that while it is important to respect “the will of voters,” he still would like Donald Trump to apologize for making disparaging comments about former prisoners of war.

Interestingly, the sudden pivot by John McCain comes just days after recordings surfaced in which he expressed concern that having Donald Trump at the top of the Republican ticket would destroy McCain’s own hopes for reelection in his home state of Arizona. Both McCain and Romney have indicated they will skip the Republican National Convention this summer, as will former presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. bush. Donald Trump engaged in a bitter campaign rivalry with Jeb Bush and publicly speculated that George W. Bush should bear some of the blame for the September 11 terror attacks.