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Washington • President-elect Donald Trump praised a "great" meeting with Mitt Romney on Saturday, though there was no word on whether the one-time presidential candidate-turned-Trump critic had been offered a job in the incoming administration.
Trump, who is reportedly considering Romney for secretary of state, said the sit down with Romney "went great," though he didn't elaborate.
Romney, the 2012 GOP nominee whose official residence is in Utah, where he lead the 2002 Winter Olympics, and who had harshly slammed Trump during the Republican primaries as a "phony" and "fraud," said Saturday he appreciated the meeting and looks forward to the "coming administration and the things that it's going to be doing."
"We had a far reaching conversation with regards to the various theaters in the world where there are interests of the United States of real significance," Romney told reporters at Trump's golf course in Bedminster, N.J. "We discussed those areas, and exchanged our views on those topics – a very thorough and in-depth discussion in the time we had."
Romney did not answer any questions before jumping into a waiting SUV.
Romney has not said whether he voted for Trump in the general election but had urged Republicans to vote for other candidates in the GOP primaries. Romney also said a Trump presidency would bring about "trickle down racism," while Trump called Romney a "loser" and a "disaster" who choked in 2012.
The pair were all smiles in New Jersey on Saturday, though.
Kevin Madden, a former top aide to Romney, told CNN on Friday that Romney wants Trump to be successful for the country.
"One of the things that drives Gov. Romney is a sense of duty and I think that sense of duty is what's driving him to help President-elect Trump in any way he can as he puts together a government," Madden said on CNN's "New Day." "I think he recognizes that there is that type of outreach going on with president-elect's transition team."
Trump also visited with former chancellor of the District of Columbia schools, Michelle Rhee, and the former commandant of the Marine Corps, James Mattis. Rhee has been rumored as a possible secretary of the Education Department and Mattis as defense secretary.