--- title: Mitt Romney Calls Donald Trump ‘Low Energy’ description: Mitt Romney on Sunday said Donald Trump was “low energy” during Saturday’s primaries and caucuses, borrowing Trump's insult canonical: https://time.com/4248830/mitt-romney-donald-trump-low-energy/ author: Melissa Chan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-06T16:13:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:44:52.544Z article:section: Politics og:title: Mitt Romney Calls Donald Trump 'Low Energy' og:description: He borrowed Trump's signature insult for Jeb Bush og:url: https://time.com/4248830/mitt-romney-donald-trump-low-energy/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt119a63f23ed9c2fa/6988805d8e060168f5464e6c/mitt-romney-donald-trump1.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Former Republican Presidential Nominee Mitt Romney Interview og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Mitt Romney Calls Donald Trump 'Low Energy' twitter:description: He borrowed Trump's signature insult for Jeb Bush twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt119a63f23ed9c2fa/6988805d8e060168f5464e6c/mitt-romney-donald-trump1.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Mitt Romney Calls Donald Trump 'Low Energy' > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### 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. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=0cb8a32c-4f23-4013-99f9-bc36b2edafe6&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1)  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Mar 6, 2016 4:13 PM UTC  Mitt Romney, former governor of Massachusetts and former 2012 Republican presidential nominee, speaks during a Bloomberg Television interview in New York on March 4, 2016. Mitt Romney, former governor of Massachusetts and former 2012 Republican presidential nominee, speaks during a Bloomberg Television interview in New York on March 4, 2016. Bloomberg—Bloomberg via Getty Images  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Mar 6, 2016 4:13 PM UTC Mitt Romney on Sunday said [Donald Trump was “low energy” during Saturday’s primaries and caucuses](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gbn18bnA8Cs), borrowing an insult the billionaire businessman used frequently against Republican rival Jeb Bush. The former Massachusetts governor and former Republican presidential nominee told NBC’s Chuck Todd on _Meet the Press_ that he thought Trump took a big hit after his [speech earlier this week that called on GOP voters](http://time.com/4246564/romney-calls-on-republican-voters-to-stop-trump/) to do anything in their power to stop Trump from becoming their party’s nominee. “I think I had a big impact,” Romney said. “I think a lot of people were surprised by how well Ted Cruz did. He got more delegates than Donald Trump last night. He was ebullient and enthusiastic, and Donald Trump was uncharacteristically low-energy last night. I think he was really surprised.” Cruz, Trump and Bernie Sanders [each won two states on Saturday](http://time.com/4248617/super-saturday-republicans-democrats/?9&xid=homepage), while Hillary Clinton won in Louisiana. Trump had [dubbed Bush a “low-energy” candidate](http://time.com/4212085/jeb-bush-donald-trump-loser/) and used it as his signature insult during a string of attacks before Bush suspended his campaign. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4248830/mitt-romney-donald-trump-low-energy/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4248830/mitt-romney-donald-trump-low-energy/"},"headline":"Mitt Romney Calls Donald Trump 'Low Energy'","datePublished":"2016-03-06T16:13:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:44:52.544Z","description":"He borrowed Trump's signature insult for Jeb Bush","url":"https://time.com/4248830/mitt-romney-donald-trump-low-energy/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt119a63f23ed9c2fa/6988805d8e060168f5464e6c/mitt-romney-donald-trump1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Chan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt119a63f23ed9c2fa/6988805d8e060168f5464e6c/mitt-romney-donald-trump1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Former Republican Presidential Nominee Mitt Romney Interview","caption":"Former Republican Presidential Nominee Mitt Romney Interview","creditText":"Bloomberg—Bloomberg via 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/4248830/mitt-romney-donald-trump-low-energy/","name":"Mitt Romney Calls Donald Trump 'Low Energy'"}}]}] ```