Former GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney said that Donald Trump is a “phony” and a “fraud” and warned that the nation’s prospects for a safe future will be “greatly diminished” if Trump becomes the Republican nominee.
In a blistering speech at the University of Utah on Thursday, Romney laid in to Trump. “His promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University,” Romney said. “He’s playing members of the American public for suckers: He gets a free ride to the White House and all we get is a lousy hat.”
Romney then made a pitch for Trump’s rivals, urging fellow Republicans to vote for anyone but Trump.
“The only serious policy proposals that deal with a broad range of national challenges we confront today come from Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and John Kasich.” He added that “one of these men should be our nominee.”
Romney went on to slam Trump for his economic plans, saying that the county would “sink into a prolonged recession” under a Trump administration and calling the business mogul “very bad for American workers and American families.”
“His bankruptcies have crushed small businesses and the men and women who work for them,” Romney said. “He inherited his business, he didn’t create it. What ever happened to Trump Airlines? How about Trump University? And then there’s Trump Magazine, Trump Vodka, and Trump Steaks, and Trump Mortgage. A business genius he is not.”
Romney’s speech was a last-ditch effort to try and stop Trump from running off with the Republican nomination. Romney has been extremely critical of Trump on social media in recent weeks, demanding that the business mogul release his tax returns and arguing that Trump was too slow to denounce the Ku Klux Klan.