--- title: Mitt Rommey Says Donald Trump Won't Win GOP Nomination description: Mitt Romney hit Donald Trump Wednesday, saying he won't win the Republican nomination and criticizing some of his positions. canonical: https://time.com/4057521/donald-trump-mitt-romney-republican-nomination/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-10-01T14:39:30.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-14T01:15:09.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Mitt Rommey Says Donald Trump Won't Win GOP Nomination og:description: Romney called some of Trump's ideas "absurd and dangerous" og:url: https://time.com/4057521/donald-trump-mitt-romney-republican-nomination/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt164c5ef6573002d1/698866622dce010c6f9e5d00/mitt-romney.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: The Atlantic And The Aspen Institute Hold Annual Washington Ideas Forum og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Mitt Rommey Says Donald Trump Won't Win GOP Nomination twitter:description: Romney called some of Trump's ideas "absurd and dangerous" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt164c5ef6573002d1/698866622dce010c6f9e5d00/mitt-romney.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Mitt Rommey Says Donald Trump Won't Win GOP Nomination > 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. ## Video: Watch The Best Quotes By Donald Trump [Watch (HLS stream): Watch The Best Quotes By Donald Trump](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/7MzTpVq2.m3u8) (1:21)  _Published 2015-07-23. Donald Trump's Most Ridiculous Quotes_  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Updated: Dec 14, 2023 1:15 AM UTCPublished: Oct 1, 2015 2:39 PM UTC  Former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney (R) speaks at the Washington Ideas Forum with James Bennet (L), of The Atlantic, in Washington, DC., Sept. 30, 2015. Former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney (R) speaks at the Washington Ideas Forum with James Bennet (L), of The Atlantic, in Washington, DC., Sept. 30, 2015. Win McNamee—Getty Images  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Updated: Dec 14, 2023 1:15 AM UTCPublished: Oct 1, 2015 2:39 PM UTC Mitt Romney took a swipe at Donald Trump Wednesday, saying he won’t win the Republican nomination and criticizing some of his positions. Romney, the 2012 GOP nominee who lost to President Obama, was speaking at the Washington Ideas Forum when he said, “My party has historically nominated someone who’s a mainstream conservative and someone who has a foundation in foreign policy,” [MSNBC reports](http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/romney-vs-trump-2012-nominee-says-the-donald-cant-be-2016-pick). He also called Trump’s position on the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) “absurd and dangerous.” On _60 Minutes_, Trump [recently advocated](http://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-60-minutes-scott-pelley/) that the U.S. not fight against ISIS in Syria, but rather allow Russia to take on the terrorist organization instead. Trump responded on Twitter on Thursday: > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/649664062268264448) Trump endorsed Romney in 2012, but relations between the two have cooled since Romney lost the election. This isn’t the first time Romney has spoken out against Trump during this cycle; he also criticized Trump over the summer for his inflammatory remarks about undocumented immigrants in his campaign launch. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4057521/donald-trump-mitt-romney-republican-nomination/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4057521/donald-trump-mitt-romney-republican-nomination/"},"headline":"Mitt Rommey Says Donald Trump Won't Win GOP Nomination","datePublished":"2015-10-01T14:39:30.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-14T01:15:09.000Z","description":"Romney called some of Trump's ideas \"absurd and dangerous\"","url":"https://time.com/4057521/donald-trump-mitt-romney-republican-nomination/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election","mitt romney","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt164c5ef6573002d1/698866622dce010c6f9e5d00/mitt-romney.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt164c5ef6573002d1/698866622dce010c6f9e5d00/mitt-romney.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"The Atlantic And The Aspen Institute Hold Annual Washington Ideas Forum","caption":"The Atlantic And The Aspen Institute Hold Annual Washington Ideas Forum","creditText":"Win McNamee—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/4057521/donald-trump-mitt-romney-republican-nomination/","name":"Mitt Rommey Says Donald Trump Won't Win GOP Nomination"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Watch The Best Quotes By Donald Trump","description":"Donald Trump's Most Ridiculous Quotes","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/7MzTpVq2/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-07-23T21:38:04.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/7MzTpVq2.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4057521/donald-trump-mitt-romney-republican-nomination/","duration":"PT1M21S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4057521/donald-trump-mitt-romney-republican-nomination/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```