Mitt Romney, the failed 2012 GOP presidential nominee who will be sworn in as a senator from Utah on Thursday, penned a scathing op-ed in the Washington Post on Tuesday ripping the president. | George Frey/Getty Images 2020 Election Romney says he won't run against Trump in 2020 The incoming senator also says he's not sure he will endorse the president's re-election bid.

Incoming Sen. Mitt Romney on Wednesday said he won't run for president again, though he warned that President Donald Trump doesn’t necessarily have his support for his 2020 reelection campaign.

“I think it's early to make that decision and I want to see what the alternatives are,” Romney told CNN’s Jake Tapper about whether he will endorse Trump in 2020.


Romney, the failed 2012 GOP presidential nominee who will be sworn in as a senator from Utah on Thursday, penned a scathing op-ed in the Washington Post this week ripping Trump for not living up to the character of the presidency.

Trump responded to Romney’s editorial by saying that he hoped Romney would be more of a team player rather than a detractor in the Senate. He also reminded Romney which of the two was ultimately successful in winning the White House.

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“If he fought the way he fights me, he would have won the election,” Trump said Wednesday afternoon during a meeting with his Cabinet.

Asked by Tapper whether he would challenge Trump in 2020, Romney said he would not.

“No. You may have heard, I ran before. I've had that experience,” he said, while acknowledging Trump’s point. “And, by the way, I acknowledge the president was successful. And I was not. He did something I couldn't do. He won. And I recognize that and appreciate that. But no, I'm not running again. And we'll see whether someone else does in a Republican primary or not. But time will tell.”

Romney has sparred with Trump before, delivering a speech in the thick of the 2016 primaries calling Trump a “fraud,” though the two appeared to have put aside their differences following the election when Romney was reportedly under consideration for the job of secretary of State.

Trump also endorsed Romney’s Senate bid when he announced he would run for the seat being vacated by longtime GOP Sen. Orrin Hatch.

The senator-elect said he was motivated to write the op-ed because of Trump’s sudden decision to pull U.S. troops out of conflict areas like Syria, as well as the departure of former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, calling the notion that Trump overrode his key national security aides “very troubling.”

Romney also ticked off more of Trump's actions in office that caused him "great concern," including his widely criticized response to a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017 as well as his support of an Alabama Senate candidate accused of sexual assault, and his frequent broadsides against the press.

But while Romney’s editorial did not mince words when it came to hitting Trump’s character, he gave himself an opening to vote to advance Trump’s policies that he did agree with while attempting to relieve himself from being what he called a "daily commentator" on Trump.

One instance, he said Wednesday, was funding for a wall along the southern border with Mexico. Border wall funding has been the key hold-up in spending negotiations that prompted a partial government shutdown now in its 12th day.

While Democrats have remained firm in their offer to fund investments in border security that don’t include a wall, Romney said that he would vote with his fellow Republicans in favor of funding for a wall.

“I would vote for the border wall. I've made that part of my platform for many, many years. I think we should have a border wall on our southern border, and whether it's a wall or fence or technology and perhaps in some cases the natural landscape prevents people from coming into the country easily, but we have to secure our border,” he said.

