Mitt Romney spoke out about the “phony” Donald Trump claiming the businessman would be devastating the American economy and foreign relations. Romney claimed in his speech that he has no intention of running for president but refused to offer an endorsement to any of the remaining candidates. Instead, Romney pushed voters to vote for whichever candidate has the best chance of winning in a particular state. However, some have questioned if Romney is secretly planning to run for president as it was revealed that paperwork was filed with the FEC on January 31, 2016, for the “Romney For President” candidate committee.

Mitt Romney has been suggested by some to be the last ditch effort by the Republican party to oust current GOP frontrunner Donald Trump. Pulling out all the stops, Romney gave a heated speech regarding why he believes that Trump is not fit to be president and urged voters to back anyone but Trump. The former presidential candidate, who infamously lost to Barack Obama in 2012, refused to endorse a particular candidate, but instead told voters to vote for whichever candidate had the best chance of beating Trump in each individual state. For example, Romney suggests voting for Rubio in Florida, John Kasich in Ohio, and for Ted Cruz or whichever one of the other two contenders has the best chance of beating Mr. Trump in the given state.

This type of rhetoric, not endorsing a particular candidate, has some questioning whether Romney could be trying to throw the Republican National Convention into a tailspin to ensure that no one candidate receives enough votes, causing the convention to be locked. CNN Politics reports that an insider close to the Mitt Romney campaign says that Romney is looking into ways to block Donald Trump at the RNC.

“It sounds like the plan is to lock the convention. Romney is focused on suppressing Trump’s delegate count to prevent him from accumulating the 1,237 delegates he needs to secure the nomination.”

This method is indicative of Romney’s anti-Trump speech as he did not throw his support behind one candidate and instead told voters to split their votes based on who has the best chance of winning in each state. If this method is followed, none of the candidates will have enough votes to win the nomination and Romney could be first in line to come in and “save” the party in this situation by representing the party in the fall election.

This idea, easily dismissed as a conspiracy theory, may have gained a little bit of traction. A committee called “Romney For President Inc.” filed documents to run for president in 2016 with the FEC. The FEC filing was amended on January 31, 2016. The filing noted Mitt Romney as president and Paul Ryan as selected VP.

The filing shows that Romney For President has been spending money actively for legal consulting and data management. The full list of Romney’s expenditures can be seen here.

Though many social media users have called an FEC filing by Romney a “sure” bet that he is running for president, it bears mentioning that practically anyone can file with the FEC without actually running. In fact, this year there is filings for Abraham Lincoln for President 2016, Dat Fat A$$, Syndeys Voluptious Buttocks and Don’t Vote For Trump. Check out all of the interesting characters that have filed with the FEC under a presidential bid this year by searching the full FEC database.

Here is a list of Romney for President expenses in descending order. As you can see, Romney's campaign has been active all the way through the December 31, 2015 reporting time frame despite the politician claiming he has no intent of running for president. (Image via FEC filing/ Romney for President)

While perhaps indicative of nothing, the recent FEC filings have certainly added a new twist to the conversation. Do you think Romney is planning to make a run for the presidency at the RNC if he can block Trump from receiving enough votes for a nomination? Is Romney banking on a locked RNC? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.

[Image by Richard Drew/ AP Photo]