By the same token, Mr. Trump has not been shy about heaping scorn upon Mr. Romney. It has created a situation in which some of Mr. Romney’s colleagues have taken their own shots at him, no doubt as a way to prove allegiance to their audience of one in the White House.
Senator David Perdue, Republican of Georgia, likened Mr. Romney to “Jeff Flake on steroids,” referring to the former Arizona Republican and frequent critic of Mr. Trump who retired last year from the Senate. Senator Kelly Loeffler, Republican of Georgia, who was recently appointed to the Senate by that state’s governor — over the objections of the White House — tried to score easy points with Mr. Trump by ambushing Mr. Romney (roughly the Senate equivalent of the new inmate picking a fight with the biggest dude on the cellblock).
“My colleague @SenatorRomney wants to appease the left by calling witnesses who will slander the @realDonaldTrump during their 15 minutes of fame” tweeted Ms. Loeffler, who along with her husband had been a major donor to Mr. Romney.
It is not just Senate Republicans who have gone against Mr. Romney, who has become a heat rod inside Mr. Trump’s party.
He gets yelled at in grocery stores, among other places. “I was on an airplane a few months ago and someone seated across the aisle began heckling me,” Mr. Romney recalled. It involved a “social issue” he said, and a flight attendant had to come over. “And they were moved to a different seat, so that I wouldn’t be bothered.”
Stuart Stevens, the chief strategist on Mr. Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign, shrugs off the vitriol. “I hope it makes them feel better because I can tell you that Mitt Romney does not care,” Mr. Stevens said. “He is an incredibly secure individual. He does not have this residual anger towards the world like Trump does.”
It helps, Mr. Stevens added, that Mr. Romney has suffered much worse politically. “As Mitt once said in some context, ‘The worst thing that could happen to anyone in politics has already happened to me. I lost the presidency.’ It’s like the guys in Vietnam said, ‘What are you going to do, send me to Vietnam?’”