Mitt Romney, Donald Trump to Talk 2012 in New York on Monday
The parade of 2012 presidential candidates knocking on Donald Trump’s door continues on Monday when the New York real estate mogul greets his latest suitor: Mitt Romney.
Romney and Trump plan to sit down for a chat in Trump’s Fifth Avenue office in the afternoon, and where they go from there is “going to be left up to Romney,” according to a source with knowledge of the meeting.
It will be the first time the former Massachusetts governor and Trump have come face-to-face since Romney jumped into the presidential race. The meeting was scheduled at Romney’s request. And the former Massachusetts governor is just the latest presidential contender to show up on Trump’s doorstep.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry dined with The Donald at Jean Georges restaurant last week.
“It was very good,” Perry said after the meal. “He knows his restaurants.” Trump declared the get-together, “excellent.”
Trump has also met with Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin in recent months and plans to have another sit-down with Bachmann in the near future.
“They’re all looking for his endorsement,” Michael Cohen, Trump’s top political adviser, told ABC News.
Cohen also said that this weekend’s burst of speculation about whether New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was reconsidering his decision not to run suggests simmering discontent.
“All the talk about Chris Christie indicates the field is still open for others — including Donald Trump — if he’s not satisfied with who the Republican Party chooses as their nominee,” Cohen said.
Monday’s meeting with Romney might be an opportunity for reconciliation between the two — they’ve had their differences.
For example, here’s how Trump sized up Romney’s resume in an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos in April.
“If you look at his record as governor, it wasn’t totally stellar,” Trump said. “His job production was not great at all. In fact, it was the third worst in the nation. There are some pretty negative things with respect to Mitt Romney, which frankly he’s going to have to overcome.”
Trump also dismissed Romney as “basically a small business guy.”
“I’m a much bigger business man and have a much, much bigger net worth. I mean, my net worth is many, many, many times Mitt Romney,” Trump said in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” in April.
And remember Trump’s crusade for President Obama’s birth certificate? Romney was not exactly a fan.
“I think the citizenship test has been passed,” Romney said in a CNBC interview this spring. “The man needs to be taken out of office but his citizenship isn’t the reason why.”