--- title: Donald Trump: Mitt Romney to Challenge GOP Frontrunner description: Mitt Romney will call Donald Trump a "phony" and "fraud" in a speech Thursday aimed at convincing Republican to reject the GOP frontrunner canonical: https://time.com/4246148/mitt-romney-donald-trump/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-03T12:42:19.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:48:39.296Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump: Mitt Romney to Challenge GOP Frontrunner og:description: Mitt Romney will call Donald Trump a "phony" and "fraud" in a speech Thursday aimed at convincing Republican to reject the GOP frontrunner og:url: https://time.com/4246148/mitt-romney-donald-trump/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt81e203e34877a813/698880185f570f7529b1fe2c/mitt-romney-speech-donald-trump.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3200 og:image:height: 1800 og:image:alt: Mitt Romney Donald Trump og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump: Mitt Romney to Challenge GOP Frontrunner twitter:description: Mitt Romney will call Donald Trump a "phony" and "fraud" in a speech Thursday aimed at convincing Republican to reject the GOP frontrunner twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt81e203e34877a813/698880185f570f7529b1fe2c/mitt-romney-speech-donald-trump.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Romney to Take Aim at 'Phony' Trump in Speech > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Mar 3, 2016 12:42 PM UTC  Former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney addresses the crowd during a rally for Republican Senate candidate Dan Sullivan on Nov. 3, 2014 in Anchorage, Alaska. Former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney addresses the crowd during a rally for Republican Senate candidate Dan Sullivan on Nov. 3, 2014 in Anchorage, Alaska. David Ryder—Getty Images  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Mar 3, 2016 12:42 PM UTC Mitt Romney will call Donald Trump a “phony” and “fraud” in a [speech](http://time.com/4245127/mitt-romney-trump-2016-speech-utah/) Thursday aimed at convincing Republicans to reject the GOP presidential frontrunner, according to [reports](http://www.politico.com/story/2016/03/mitt-romney-trump-speech-220167). “Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud,” Romney will say. “He’s playing the American public for suckers: He gets a free ride to the White House and all we get is a lousy hat.” The speech—to be held at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City at 11:30 a.m. ET—comes as a slew of [establishment Republicans take aim](http://time.com/4245673/donald-trump-republican-plan-stop/) at Trump’s candidacy. Several groups opposed to Trump’s candidacy have poured millions into a last-ditch effort to change the direction of the campaign in recent days. Romney has previously [challenged Trump on Twitter](http://time.com/4237647/donald-trump-mitt-romney-twitter-taxes/), calling on him to release his tax returns and condemning Trump’s reluctance to condemn the KKK. Romney will also take on Democratic front runner Hillary Clinton in the speech, calling her “untrustworthy and dishonest.” John Kasich, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio are the only remaining candidates for president with reasonable policy positions, Romney will say. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4246148/mitt-romney-donald-trump/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4246148/mitt-romney-donald-trump/"},"headline":"Romney to Take Aim at 'Phony' Trump in Speech","datePublished":"2016-03-03T12:42:19.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:48:39.296Z","description":"'Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud'","url":"https://time.com/4246148/mitt-romney-donald-trump/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt81e203e34877a813/698880185f570f7529b1fe2c/mitt-romney-speech-donald-trump.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt81e203e34877a813/698880185f570f7529b1fe2c/mitt-romney-speech-donald-trump.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Mitt Romney Donald Trump","caption":"Mitt Romney Donald Trump","creditText":"David Ryder—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4246148/mitt-romney-donald-trump/","name":"Romney to Take Aim at 'Phony' Trump in Speech"}}]}] ```