What could Senator Romney mean for the Trump agenda?

  Former Massachusetts governor and two time failed presidential candidate Mitt Romney, announced Friday that he will run in the 2018 midterm election for Utah’s vacant senate seat. Since the announcement that the seat’s current occupant Senator Orrin Hatch will not stand for reelection, there has been much speculation surrounding the possibility of Romney running. Romney is viewed by some within the GOP as an elder statesman of sorts, and despite having likely lost some credibility within the party due to his opposition to Trump in 2016, many within the GOP will likely support Romney. With Romney’s victory basically assured it is important to ask, what will a Senator Romney mean for the GOP and the Trump administration’s legislative agenda?

Valuable asset...?

Since Trump’s election, relations have seemingly warmed between the president and Romney. The two met at Trump tower during the then president-elect’s transition period, with rumors swirling at the time that Romney was under consideration for Secretary of State. Shortly after Romney’s announcement that he was running for senate, the president publicly voiced his support on Twitter. This came as something of a surprise, with many expecting that President Trump would bide his time in endorsing Romney, given Romney never Trump position during the election. Based on his enthusiastic support, the president clearly believes to some degree that Romney can be an asset to him in the senate. The idea that Romney could be helpful to the passage of the Trump legislative agenda, while somewhat unexpected, is not entirely ridiculous. Given his long political past Romney has many connections and allies in Washington. Given the relative amount of respect he has on both sides of the aisle, if he chooses to Romney could prove instrumental in helping Trump achieve his repeatedly stated desire to work/compromise with democrats. Romney could also serve as a emissary between Trump and those in the GOP who tend to oppose him. Senators like John Mccain and Susan Collins may be more open to the Trump agenda if it has the backing of one of their fellow centrists like Romney. All of these benefits however, are dependent upon Romney’s willingness to help advance the Trump agenda, which at the present is not entirely discernible.

...or dangerous enemy?

Romney may well go the way of senators such as Mccain and Collins, using his position oppose the president, despite his  party affiliation, in order to protect certain centrist/neo-conservative norms. While President Trump is likely to find an ally in Romney when it comes to issues such as taxation and regulation, he will likely find resistance from the former Massachusetts governor on the issues that often lead to inter-GOP conflict, such as foreign policy and immigration issues. Like his long time friend John Mccain, Mitt Romney is likely to oppose any foreign policy that appears non-interventionist in the slightest, his love of foreign intervention and nation building will likely put him in opposition to the president's America First approach to national security and foreign policy. Similarly, Romney is unlikely to support any form of comprehensive immigration reform that does not include some form of amnesty for illegal immigrants. He made his views on Trump’s immigration policy known throughout the 2016 campaign, describing the president as racist and hateful. With all of this in mind it is easy to see how Romney could serve as a major obstacle to the passage of President Trump’s America First agenda.

While having Romney in Utah’s senate seat does at the very least ensure it isn’t held by a democrat, it is hard to imagine Romney being a true proponent of the America First agenda. Unfortunately, Trump’s fast endorsement of Romney may well be another case of the President being to forgiving of former opposition and overestimating their willingness to compromise.