Rick Bowmer/AP Photo Romney: I won't 'look backward' at stinging Trump rebukes

As a private citizen in 2016 Mitt Romney delivered a scathing rebuke of Donald Trump. But as a Senate candidate in 2018 the former Republican presidential nominee says he’s focused on looking “forward.”

Romney told audience members Thursday at a community theater in Utah, where he is vying to replace retiring Sen. Orrin Hatch, that he will not “look backward” at his past criticisms of the president.


"I look forward. I'm not going to look backward," Romney said when asked by an audience member if he would give another speech taking aim at Trump, according to the Deseret News.

The Republican politician also expressed muted support for Trump’s offensive economic maneuvers against China, which have sparked unrest among global markets after the president directed U.S. officials to consider substantial tariffs on Chinese imports.

"I think the president is leading with some policies that will wake up our friends in China and they’ll recognize that business as usual is going to have to change," Romney said during the event at the Hale Centre Theatre in Sandy.

But Romney said it would not be good if a trade war broke out between the two countries — something Trump maintains is not occurring.

"I don't think we're going to go there," he added.

Romney, who lost in his bid for the presidency in 2012 to Barack Obama, hammered Trump during a speech at Utah University in March 2016, before the then-candidate clinched the Republican nomination.

"Here's what I know: Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud," Romney said. "His promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University. 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."

The remarks sparked a war of words between them, with Trump replying on Twitter that “Mitt Romney had his chance and blew it.”

Romney declared in February he would run to replace Hatch, whom Trump publicly and privately urged to run for re-election. Three days after Romney unveiled his bid, Trump tweeted that the former Massachusetts governor “has my full support and endorsement!”