Former President Donald Trump took to Truth Social on Wednesday to celebrate Republican Utah Sen. Mitt Romney’s announcement that he will not seek re-election.
Romney released a video to Twitter on Wednesday announcing his seat in the Senate will be vacant in Jan. 2025.
“FANTASTIC NEWS FOR AMERICA,THE GREAT STATE OF UTAH, & FOR THE REPUBLICAN PARTY,” Trump wrote in all caps. “MITT ROMNEY, SOMETIMES REFERRED TO AS PIERRE DELECTO, WILL NOT BE SEEKING A SECOND TERM IN THE U.S. SENATE, WHERE HE DID NOT SERVE WITH DISTINCTION. A BIG PRIMARY FIGHT AGAINST HIM WAS IN THE OFFING, BUT NOW THAT WILL NOT BE NECESSARY. CONGRATS TO ALL. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Trump was highly critical of Romney in the 2016 campaign, saying the former presidential candidate had “choked like a dog” in the 2012 presidential race against Barack Obama. Trump also claimed that Mitt Romney had “begged” for his endorsement in 2012 and would have “dropped to his knees” for it. Romney
Romney has remained one of Trump’s major political rivals, particularly after being the only Senate Republican to vote in favor of convicting during the then-president’s first impeachment over a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky about the Biden family’s business dealings in Ukraine. The Senate acquitted Trump in a Feb. 5, 2021, vote after former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi launched the impeachment in September 2019. (RELATED: Mitt Romney Receives JFK ‘Profile In Courage’ Award For Voting To Impeach Donald Trump)
Romney, along with six other Republicans, voted in favor of impeaching Trump a second time after the House impeached him on the charge of inciting an insurrection on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The Utah senator and 2012 presidential candidate had been highly critical of Trump since his candidacy in 2016. He claimed he would not have accepted Trump’s endorsement over his remarks about the Ku Klux Klan, Mexicans and the disabled in a Mar. 3, 2016, tweet. He then wholeheartedly accepted Trump’s endorsement in 2018.