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SALT LAKE CITY — Mitt Romney continues to be seen as a top contender to serve as secretary of state in President-elect Donald Trump's new administration, despite their differences.
Trump is "leaning toward" naming Mitt Romney to serve in the key post, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, citing unnamed people familiar with the billionaire businessman's deliberations.
According to the newspaper, Trump's decision is being delayed by "an internal tug of war" between supporters of Romney and those backing former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, while others on the transition team want to continue the search.
The newspaper said Trump views Romney — one of his harshest critics during the presidential campaign — "as the prototypical choice to be the nation's top diplomat," and that two people described the president-elect as "inclined to select" Romney.
CBS News reported Tuesday that a source close to the transition said Romney became "a serious contender" for the job after impressing Trump during their well-publicized meeting Saturday.
The network's source said Trump so enjoyed the meeting with Romney, the GOP's 2012 presidential nominee, that he no longer has his "head wrapped around Rudy Giuliani," a loyal supporter who has talked publicly about the high-profile job.
"It seems so improbable that it just might be true," said Jason Perry, head of the University of Utah's Hinckley Institute of Politics. "It's very clear why this could be a good decision for Donald Trump."
Perry said not only would choosing Romney as secretary of state help Trump with Republicans who have yet to get behind the president-elect, it would also ease some of the concerns expressed by world leaders about the future of U.S. foreign policy.
Because of the friction between the two men during the campaign, Perry said selecting Romney would be seen as "bringing your most ardent critic into the house and sitting him at the table."
Romney, who endeared himself to Utahns after taking over the troubled 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, labeled Trump a "phony" and a "fraud" in a speech last March at the University of Utah aimed at stopping Trump.
Trump responded by referring to Romney as a "choke artist" and a "loser" who pleaded for Trump's endorsement in the 2012 presidential race. He even questioned whether Romney was really a Mormon.
But after spending more than an hour with Trump, Romney told reporters they shared "a far-reaching conversation with regard to the various theaters in the world where there are interests of the United States of real significance."
That conversation was widely reported as being about the position of secretary of state. Vice President-elect Mike Pence, who sat in for part of the discussion, called it "a very substantive meeting."
Don Peay, Trump's top supporter in Utah and a close friend of the Trump family, said Romney is "absolutely" a possibility for secretary of state despite the tension that emerged during the campaign.
"That's what businessman do. You don't get caught up in the petty politics," Peay said. "Trump's not going to play that game. They want the best and the brightest, and the most capable."
He said while he is not speaking for the new administration, he expects that Trump will announce all of the national security-related posts, including secretary of state, by Dec. 1.
"They know that the nation's national security needs to be ready to go at day one," Peay said. "That's when your enemies will try to make a go at you."
Secretary of state isn't the only position that Romney could be under consideration for, he said, because of his experience in the business world and as governor of Massachusetts.
"Mitt's a very talented businessman. He is a turnaround artist. I think there's three or four roles he could play," Peay said, including running Health and Human Services or the Veterans Administration, entities that "need a major restructuring."
Trump told a meeting of about two dozen anchors and executives from broadcast and cable networks on Monday that Romney "desperately wants" to be secretary of state, according to a report in The New Yorker.
"That sounds like you're going to give it to somebody else," said Matthew Wilson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Still, Wilson said, he believes Trump looked at Romney seriously.
"Otherwise, why would Trump meet with him? Trump doesn't need anything from Mitt Romney," Wilson said. "Giving him that position would signal that Trump is willing to rise above personal animosity … to be the bigger man."
But that impression disappears if Trump doesn't find a role for Romney, he said.
Just how well a Secretary of State Romney would fit into the Trump administration remains to be seen.
"A president and a secretary of state have to work together closely. It's pretty clear that Mitt Romney and Donald Trump are not temperamentally similar," Wilson said, with Romney more methodical and Trump governing from the gut.
"That would probably over time drive Romney crazy," he said, especially given the delicate work of negotiating with other governments. "If your president is a bull in a china shop, that could just ruin all of that."
