Senior Donald Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway on Sunday indicated a split in the president-elect’s camp, saying of the possible appointment of Mitt Romney as America’s top diplomat: “I’m all for party unity but I’m not sure we have to pay for that with the secretary of state position.”

Reports have said Trump’s choice has come down to Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts who was the Republican nominee for president in 2012, and the former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

The New York Post reported that over the Thanksgiving break, Trump had been asking guests at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida who should fill the post.

Romney led vociferous Republican opposition to Trump during the primaries and the general election, calling the businessman a “fraud” and a “phony” and saying he was not worthy of the presidency.

“His is not the temperament of a stable, thoughtful leader. His imagination must not be married to real power,” he said in a speech in March. Trump responded by recalling Romney “begging” for his endorsement four years before.

Nonetheless, Romney has made a play for the appointment, meeting Trump at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, last week.

Conway, who was Trump’s third campaign manager after first working for Texas senator Ted Cruz, first signalled her opposition and party concerns earlier this week, with a series of tweets.

Trump has reportedly favoured conflict among those of his advisers who are not related to him, as a means of fostering competition and motivation.

On Sunday, Conway, who said Trump had spoken by phone to Barack Obama for 45 minutes on Saturday, told ABC’s This Week she would not discuss whether she had been told to send out her tweets, and said: “I weigh in privately.”

“Only one person will select the cabinet and that is President-elect Donald Trump,” she added. “Whatever he decides will have my full support and respect and he knows that, and so does Vice-President-elect Mike Pence.”

Appearing on CNN’s State of the Union, she spoke forcefully. The number of people who feel “betrayed that Governor Romney would get a cabinet post after he went so far out of his way to hurt Donald Trump”, she said, is “breathtaking”.

“There was the Never Trump movement and then there was Mitt Romney who gave speeches against Donald Trump, attacked his character ... and the Romney consultants were the worst to all of us.”

Saying she was “not sure my personal concerns matter”, Conway sought to focus on matters of foreign policy, saying: “Over the last four years, has Governor Romney been around the globe doing something on behalf of the United States of which we are unaware?

“Has he been to intervene in Syria where we are having a massive humanitarian crisis? Has been helpful to Mr Netanyahu?”

Conway said she would respect Trump’s decision, but added: “I’m just saying [about] the backlash. We don’t even know if Mitt Romney voted for Donald Trump.”

Unlike other senior Republicans such as Ohio governor John Kasich, who voted for 2008 nominee John McCain rather than support Trump, Romney did not say whom he voted for in the presidential election.



Appearing on NBC’s Meet the Press, Conway denied “campaigning” against Romney, and blamed such perceptions on media bias. She also said that in criticising Romney on a succession of media shows, she was merely “reflecting what the grassroots are saying”.

Giuliani, a loyal surrogate often tasked with answering serious charges against the businessman, made his case in an interview with the Wall Street Journal this week.

He said: “I probably have travelled in the last 13 years as much as Hillary [Clinton] did in the years she was secretary of state. My knowledge of foreign policy is as good, or better, than anybody they’re talking to.”

He added: “I’ve been to England eight times, Japan six times, France five times. China three times – once with Bill Clinton, by the way.”

Concerns have been raised about whether Giuliani’s interests and activities since leaving the New York mayor’s mansion – including paid speeches in favour of an Iranian rebel group that was listed as a terrorist organisation by the state department from 1997 to 2012 – may disqualify him from taking the role.

It was also reported this week that Trump was considering Tulsi Gabbard, a 35-year-old Democratic congresswoman and military veteran from Hawaii who made news during the campaign by resigning from the Democratic National Committee in order to support Bernie Sanders.