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- Trump Jr. told the RNC chairwoman he was just 'f—ing' with Romney in calling for him to be expelled, a new book says.
- Trump Jr.'s tweet calling Romney "a member of the resistance" caught the chair, Ronna McDaniel off guard.
- "You know I can't just kick him out of the party, right?" McDaniel told Trump Jr., per the book.
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Donald Trump Jr. assured RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel that his tweet calling for Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, her uncle, to be expelled from Congress was "just f—ing with him," according to a newly-published book.
Wall Street Journal reporter Michael Bender's "Frankly We Did Win This Election," published by Twelve Books on July 13, pulls back the curtain on the White House's internal machinations surrounding former President Donald Trump's first impeachment and acquittal in the Senate.
Romney was the only Republican Senator to break with his party and vote to convict Trump on a charge of abusing his office on February 5, 2020. The impeachment trial centered around Trump and his allies' efforts to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to openly investigate now-President Joe Biden's son Hunter in the lead-up to the 2020 election.
Read more: The definitive oral history of how Trump took over the GOP, as told to us by Cruz, Rubio, and 20 more insiders
In doing so, Romney "infuriated" the Trumpverse and inspired Trump Jr. to fire off a tweet that said: "Mitt Romney is forever bitter that he will never be POTUS. He was too weak to beat the Democrats then so he's joining them now. He's now officially a member of the resistance & should be expelled from the @GOP," tagging the RNC's account.
"You know I can't just kick him out of the party, right?" McDaniel told Trump Jr. on the phone shortly after, as the tweet stirred up a flurry of speculation over whether Trump Jr. was speaking for the party.
"I'm just f---ing with him," Trump Jr. told McDaniel, according to the book. "This is not some thought-out strategy coordinated with the Republican caucus."
The next day, at the National Prayer Breakfast, Trump triumphantly held up newspaper covers with the news of his Senate acquittal and launched broadsides apparently targeted at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a devout Catholic, and Sen. Mitt Romney, a Mormon.
"I don't like people who use their faith as justification to do something they know is wrong, nor do I like people who say, 'I pray for you,' when they know that is not so," Trump said. "So many people have been hurt, and we can not let that go on."
In another episode recounted in Bender's book, Trump told then-Utah Gov. Gary Herbert to "keep" Romney, as Trump didn't want him in Washington, DC.