Biographer says Mitt Romney preparing to be on Trump’s ‘enemies list’ if he wins

SALT LAKE CITY — Sen. Mitt Romney is increasingly worried about what life might be like if former President Donald Trump wins in November, his biographer said.

Journalist and Brigham Young University graduate McKay Coppins revealed new details Tuesday about the Utah Republican’s thoughts about the presidential election in a new afterword for the paperback version of his book “Romney: A Reckoning.”

That book first came out nearly a year ago and has attracted a lot of attention in Utah and nationally, painting Romney as a fierce critic of the former president and the Republican Party.

“He is thinking seriously about what it will mean to be on a president’s enemies list,” Coppins told KSL TV in an interview Tuesday. “Donald Trump has said repeatedly that he will seek retribution against his political enemies when he comes back to the White House if he wins, and I think Trump means that, and Romney is kind of preparing for that reality.”

Coppins based the new afterword on an interview he conducted with Romney in the spring.

“The first thing that just came across to me is that he can’t wait to get out of Washington,” Coppins, a writer for The Atlantic, said. “He’s just been really disillusioned by the dysfunction that the Senate and Congress in general is kind of operating under.”

In the interview, Coppins said Romney expressed concern about life if Trump wins another term.

“He’s actually been privately musing to friends that if Trump is re-elected, he and Ann might have to consider leaving the country, moving abroad,” Coppins said.

A spokesperson later said Romney wasn’t being serious, but Coppins said for a Trump critic like Romney, the worry is real.

Romney has just a few months left in his term as U.S. senator from Utah. Coppins notes there aren’t many in office like Romney – a Republican who’s willing to take on Donald Trump.

“That’s part of what makes Romney unique,” Coppins said. “The fact that he’s been willing to open up about his concerns over what’s happening to the party under Trump while he’s still serving in the Senate, I think, makes his insights valuable and shows that he’s paid a price for his candor.”

Trump has criticized Romney, calling him “a total loser” and blasting the book as “horrible, boring, and totally predictable.”

When Coppins last spoke to Romney, he said, the senator was considering endorsing Joe Biden. But Coppins doesn’t expect Romney will do the same for Kamala Harris.

“I don’t think he’s going to endorse either candidate,” said Coppins. “I think he feels pretty alienated by both parties in a lot of ways.”

Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2018. He did not run for a second term, citing a desire to make way for “a new generation of leaders.” Utah Rep. John Curtis, a Republican, and mountaineer Caroline Gleich, a Democrat, are among the candidates running to replace him.