Donald Trump pilloried Mitt Romney on his home turf on Friday, making his best appeal to the state’s majority Mormon population and questioning whether Romney truly represented their faith.
The rally in Salt Lake City, coming one week after clashes between supporters and protesters forced Trump to cancel a Chicago event, was also marked by a couple hundred protesters outside the Infinity Event Center, some of whom at one point tried to rush into the event.
“Do I love the Mormons? I have many friends that live in Salt Lake City — and by the way, Mitt Romney is not one of them,” Trump said to applause. “Are you sure he’s a Mormon? Are we sure?”
Romney, the GOP 2012’s nominee, said earlier on Friday that he would vote for Ted Cruz in Utah, who is expected to do well in the state’s GOP caucuses on Tuesday. Romney has recently become a leading critic of Trump, the national GOP front-runner, and he said he would back Cruz in Utah because he had the best chance of stopping Trump there.
Trump also said at his campaign rally Friday night that many Mormons had worked for his businesses, and that employees even occasionally make deposits directly to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints so they’re not tempted to pocket their paychecks.
“He’s out campaigning with (Ohio Gov. John) Kasich and then he endorses Cruz,” Trump added in another shot at Romney. “People say — are you sure you know what you’re doing?”
Romney became at least the third high-profile Republican to have his religion questioned by Trump. Both Cruz, who is Southern Baptist, and former 2016 candidate Ben Carson, who is Seventh-Day Adventist, have had to reaffirm the particulars of their faith after being questioned by Trump.
And the criticism is particularly harsh for Romney, who has been reluctant to share his Mormon faith in public life. Some Christians do not see Mormonism as a true Christian church.
(CNN)
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