--- description: In a wide-ranging speech, Republican front-runner Donald Trump hit back at Mitt Romney Thursday, criticizing him as a failed candidate title: Trump: Romney 'Begged' For My Endorsement in 2012 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1d950a87ac8170e0/6988802d0a4a221f0e9c8a8d/mitt-romney-donald-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Politics](/section/politics/) ## Politics Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Donald Trump](/tag/donald-trump/) ## Donald Trump Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Trump: Romney 'Begged' For My Endorsement in 2012 ## Video: TIME Raw: Romney's Speech on Trump [Watch (HLS stream): TIME Raw: Romney's Speech on Trump](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/BI9vQbgP.m3u8) (2:28)  _Published 2016-03-03_ by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Mar 3, 2016 7:48 PM CUT  Mitt Romney gives a speech on the state of the Republican party at the Hinckley Institute of Politics on the campus of the University of Utah on March 3, 2016 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Mitt Romney gives a speech on the state of the Republican party at the Hinckley Institute of Politics on the campus of the University of Utah on March 3, 2016 in Salt Lake City, Utah.George Frey—Getty Images by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Mar 3, 2016 7:48 PM CUT In a wide-ranging speech, Republican front-runner Donald Trump hit back at Mitt Romney Thursday, criticizing him as a failed candidate who had “begged” for his endorsement in the 2012 presidential campaign. Speaking at a press conference in Portland, Maine, Trump argued that Romney was a “choke artist” who lost the third presidential debate, disappeared from the campaign trail and was defeated in a winnable race against President Obama. “Mitt was a disaster as a candidate,” he said. “He let us down. He should have won.” Trump was responding to [a hard-hitting and unprecedented speech](http://time.com/4246564/romney-calls-on-republican-voters-to-stop-trump/ "undefined") earlier in the day at the University of Utah in which Romney called him “a phony, a fraud,” arguing that he did not represent the true values of conservatism. **Read More:** [_Read Mitt Romney’s Speech About Donald Trump_](http://time.com/4246596/donald-trump-mitt-romney-utah-speech/ "undefined") He then went on to note that Romney [sought his endorsement in the 2012 primary](http://time.com/4246367/donald-trump-mitt-romney-2012/ "undefined"), coming to Trump Tower for a private meeting. He said that in the closed-doors meeting Romney “begged” for his support. “I could have said, ‘Mitt, drop to your knees,’ he would have dropped to his knees,” he said. “He was begging me.” The back-and-forth between the previous nominee and the presumptive front-runner came in the midst of a last-ditch effort by the Republican establishment to prevent Trump from securing the nomination before the convention in Cleveland. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4246947/trump-romney-begged-endorsement-2012/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4246947/trump-romney-begged-endorsement-2012/"},"headline":"Trump: Romney 'Begged' For My Endorsement in 2012","datePublished":"2016-03-03T19:48:28.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T15:36:32.676Z","description":"\"I could have said, 'Mitt, drop to your knees,' he would have dropped to his knees\"","url":"https://time.com/4246947/trump-romney-begged-endorsement-2012/","keywords":["Donald Trump","2016 Election topic","mitt romney"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1d950a87ac8170e0/6988802d0a4a221f0e9c8a8d/mitt-romney-donald-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ryan Teague Beckwith","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1d950a87ac8170e0/6988802d0a4a221f0e9c8a8d/mitt-romney-donald-trump.jpg?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 gives a speech on the state of the Republican party at the Hinckley Institute of Politics on the campus of the University of Utah on March 3, 2016 in Salt Lake City, Utah.","creditText":"George Frey—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/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4246947/trump-romney-begged-endorsement-2012/","name":"Trump: Romney 'Begged' For My Endorsement in 2012"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"TIME Raw: Romney's Speech on Trump","description":"","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/BI9vQbgP/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-03-03T17:38:56.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/BI9vQbgP.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4246947/trump-romney-begged-endorsement-2012/","duration":"PT2M28S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4246947/trump-romney-begged-endorsement-2012/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```