--- title: Mitt Romney: Donald Trump's Rise the Fault of GOP Candidates description: Mitt Romney criticized the 2016 Republican presidential candidates at his summit on Saturday, faulting them for Donald Trump's rise canonical: https://time.com/4365220/mitt-romney-faults-other-republican-candidates-for-donald-trumps-rise/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-06-11T20:17:58.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:48:22.180Z article:section: Politics og:title: Mitt Romney: Donald Trump's Rise the Fault of GOP Candidates og:description: “Their biggest failure was attacking each other and not the frontrunner" og:url: https://time.com/4365220/mitt-romney-faults-other-republican-candidates-for-donald-trumps-rise/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1a6319b0c8ecc1bc/698897670a4a22a6ec9ca0c6/gettyimages-513525972.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4323 og:image:height: 2432 og:image:alt: Mitt Romney Delivers Speech On State Of 2016 GOP Presidential Race og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Mitt Romney: Donald Trump's Rise the Fault of GOP Candidates twitter:description: “Their biggest failure was attacking each other and not the frontrunner" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1a6319b0c8ecc1bc/698897670a4a22a6ec9ca0c6/gettyimages-513525972.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Mitt Romney Faults Other Republican Candidates for Donald Trump's Rise > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=57413c0a-6066-44f7-800f-04ee780eb0c5&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1)  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Jun 11, 2016 8:17 PM UTC  Former Massachusetts Gov. 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. Former Massachusetts Gov. 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 [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Jun 11, 2016 8:17 PM UTC Mitt Romney [criticized the 2016 Republican presidential candidates](http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/mitt-romney-donald-trump-republican-candidates-224216) at his summit in Park City, Utah on Saturday, faulting them for Donald Trump’s rise because of how they handled the mogul’s candidacy. “Their biggest failure was attacking each other and not the frontrunner,” Romney said during a Q&A with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, [Politico reported](http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/mitt-romney-donald-trump-republican-candidates-224216). “Just politically, I thought that move was not right for them.” Romney, who was the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, has been one of the most [outspoken critics of Trump](http://time.com/4246148/mitt-romney-donald-trump/) within the Republican Party during this campaign. **Read more**: [Read Mitt Romney’s Speech About Donald Trump](http://time.com/4246596/donald-trump-mitt-romney-utah-speech/) Romney specifically faulted Texas Sen. Ted Cruz—whom he [endorsed in March](http://time.com/4264864/romney-backs-cruz-in-effort-to-block-trump/)—for praising Trump too much early in the primary process, and criticized Ohio Gov. John Kasich for [staying in the race too long](http://time.com/4317997/republican-party-donald-trump-john-kasich-ted-cruz-indiana/) and dividing the anti-Trump vote. Romney also said Jeb Bush’s super PAC, Right to Rise, spent too much money attacking primary opponents other than Trump. But the former Massachusetts Governor also gave Trump some credit for running an effective campaign. “He played it extremely well,” he said, commenting on the way Trump tapped into voter frustration. “It was a very effective strategy.” \[[Politico](http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/mitt-romney-donald-trump-republican-candidates-224216)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4365220/mitt-romney-faults-other-republican-candidates-for-donald-trumps-rise/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4365220/mitt-romney-faults-other-republican-candidates-for-donald-trumps-rise/"},"headline":"Mitt Romney Faults Other Republican Candidates for Donald Trump's Rise","datePublished":"2016-06-11T20:17:58.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:48:22.180Z","description":"“Their biggest failure was attacking each other and not the frontrunner\"","url":"https://time.com/4365220/mitt-romney-faults-other-republican-candidates-for-donald-trumps-rise/","keywords":["Donald Trump","2016 Election","mitt romney"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1a6319b0c8ecc1bc/698897670a4a22a6ec9ca0c6/gettyimages-513525972.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1a6319b0c8ecc1bc/698897670a4a22a6ec9ca0c6/gettyimages-513525972.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Mitt Romney Delivers Speech On State Of 2016 GOP Presidential Race","caption":"Mitt Romney Delivers Speech On State Of 2016 GOP Presidential Race","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/4365220/mitt-romney-faults-other-republican-candidates-for-donald-trumps-rise/","name":"Mitt Romney Faults Other Republican Candidates for Donald Trump's Rise"}}]}] ```