Mitt Romney is hoping for a brokered Republican convention in July to stop Donald Trump from winning the nomination, CNN reports.



He has instructed close advisers for look into ways to make this happen.



"The goal is to lock him out at the convention," CNN correspondent Jamie Gangel told Wolf Blitzer, citing sources close to the former Massachusetts governor. "Now, they have to get to the convention, but that's the long-term strategy.



"And implicit in that is that Mitt Romney could offer himself up as a white knight to save the party," she said.



Romney slammed Trump Thursday as a fraud who is playing the American public for suckers.



Gangel called Romney's speech "the opening volley" in a GOP strategy that also includes urging all the current candidates to stay in the race to stop Trump from winning the required number of delegates.



"Expect the GOP leadership establishment to hit harder and harder on Trump," she added, primarily on releasing his tax returns.



"There is a thought that he is not as rich or as liquid as he says he is — and they think they can undermine him by doing that," Gangel told Blitzer.



The ultimate goal is to force Trump into a third-party run — and she said that her Romney sources were "willing to take that chance.



"It's better than having him as the Republican nominee."



