Trump was responding to Romney's speech earlier Thursday in which he eviscerated Trump, casting him as unfit to be the president of the United States.
Romney appealed to Republican voters to consider the consequences of a vote for Trump in caucuses and primaries across the country saying, “If we Republicans choose Donald Trump as our nominee, the prospects for a safe and prosperous future are diminished.”
In his speech, Romney made clear that he, himself, is not planning to run and called on voters to consider any of the four remaining Republican candidates, cautioning that "a person so untrustworthy and dishonest as [Democratic candidate] Hillary Clinton must not become president.” But the former Massachusetts governor said Trump has neither the temperament nor the judgment to be president.
Romney continued, “Now think about that. Let the most dangerous terror organization the world has ever known take over an entire country? This recklessness is recklessness in the extreme.”
Denouncing Trump as "a phony" and "a fraud," Romney said Trump's "promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University'' -- a reference to a Trump business enterprise that is under investigation for fraud in New York.
Romney, who ran unsuccessfully against President Barack Obama four years ago, spoke in Salt Lake City, Utah, Thursday, at the University of Utah's Hinckley Institute of Politics Forum.
His increasing jabs at Trump in recent days include sharp criticism of the party front-runner's refusal to release his tax returns and his initial reluctance to disavow an endorsement from a former leader of the Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist group.
