The president argued in his Twitter that the Utah Republican should be removed from office and that former Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), another frequent Trump critic, was "better" than Romney.
"I’m hearing that the Great People of Utah are considering their vote for their Pompous Senator, Mitt Romney, to be a big mistake. I agree! He is a fool who is playing right into the hands of the Do Nothing Democrats! #IMPEACHMITTROMNEY," Trump tweeted.
I’m hearing that the Great People of Utah are considering their vote for their Pompous Senator, Mitt Romney, to be a big mistake. I agree! He is a fool who is playing right into the hands of the Do Nothing Democrats! #IMPEACHMITTROMNEY
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2019
No Kevin, Jeff Flake is better! https://t.co/IyENBffEjp
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2019
Romney, who was elected to the Senate last year, has the highest disapproval rating of Utah's congressional delegation, according to a poll taken in July. While US senators cannot legally be impeached, they can face recall votes in some states. Utah, however, does not have any provisions in state law for recalling a sitting senator.
The tweets came as part of Trump’s fury over the former Republican presidential candidate’s recent comments, with Romney calling Trump’s requests for China and Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden a "brazen and unprecedented appeal" and "wrong and appalling."
US President Donald Trump commented on the matter a day earlier, saying that he is unsure whether he will cooperate with the House of Representatives' impeachment inquiry that was launched on 24 September.
The inquiry into Trump’s 25 July telephone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was initiated after a whistleblower sent a complaint to Congress, claiming that Trump had pressed Zelensky to investigate possible corruption by 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden and implicitly threatened to withhold US military aid to Ukraine.
Trump denied the allegations, calling them another attempt at a political witch hunt to reverse the outcome of the 2016 US presidential election, and published the transcript of the telephone call with Zelensky. However, the US president claimed that Hunter Biden had received major investments from China.
According to Arizona Republican Congressman Paul Gosar, the conflict between Trump and Romney is "both ideological and personal".
"Trump is a reformer and attempting to clean up Washington, DC. Romney is a believer in the current system and does not see any needed reforms. For Romney, the prior aimless spending, haphazard domestic policies, and interventionist global foreign policy favors the elite and open borders proponents of which he is one. Trump is ideologically opposed to this", Gosar said.
Gosar also dubbed Romney's personal shots at the US president "cheap and unnecessary".
Trump’s endorsements show that Trump understands that to win you have to stick together. Romney lacks that comprehension. Is it because Trump has accomplished what Romney never could? Maybe”, Gosar concluded.
