Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, who lost the 2012 election as the Republican nominee, posted a Facebook message Monday night indicating he would not be secretary of state in President-elect Donald Trump’s administration.
Trump will formally announce his pick of Exxon Mobile CEO Rex Tillerson for the position Tuesday, according to The Associated Press.
Romney, a vocal critic of Trump’s during the campaign, met twice with the President-elect in recent weeks as Trump weighed his options for secretary of state.
In March, as Trump was moving toward the Republican nomination, Romney gave a speech in Utah where he decried Trump as “a phony, a fraud.”
“Let me put it plainly,” Romney said at the time, “if we Republicans choose Donald Trump as our nominee, the prospects for a safe and prosperous future are greatly diminished.”
But after recent meetings, Romney had a different message.
“It’s not easy to win. I know that myself. He did something I tried to do and was unsuccessful in accomplishing and he won the general election,” Romney said. “He continues to spread a message of inclusion and bringing people together. And his vision is something that obviously connected with the American people in a very powerful way.”
Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway was critical of Romney as a potential secretary of state, noting his previous opposition to Trump.
“We don’t even know if Mitt Romney voted for Donald Trump. I think there are concerns that those of us that are loyal have, and we want a secretary of state who’s loyal to the president,” Conway said on CNN’s State of the Union last month.