As the Trump campaign maintained its strong momentum Republican heavyhitters Mitt Romney and John McCain blasted the frontrunner in unusually blunt language. Romney’s intervention was particularly severe, calling Trump a ‘phony’ and a ‘fraud’, while John McCain said that Trump was ‘dangerous’. Trump reacted in typical style, noting that Romney had ‘begged’ him to endorse his 2012 campaign.

A narrow majority of Americans (51%) agree with Mitt Romney’s assessment that Donald Trump is a ‘phony’ and a ‘fraud’, though 31% do disagree. Unsurprisingly a large majority of Democrats (71%) agree that he is a fraud, along with many independents (45%). Half of Republicans, however, disagree with Romney that Trump is a fraud and a phony, though a third do agree.

The limited impact of Romney’s intervention may, at least in part, be due to Romney’s relative lack of popularity among Republicans compared to Trump. 57% of Republicans have a positive view of Trump, while 46% have a favorable view of Romney. The same percentage of Republicans, 46%, also have an unfavorable view of their 2012 candidate.