Trump and Romney
Trump and RomneyReuters

Vice President-elect Mike Pence confirmed Sunday that former Massachusetts Governor and 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney is in the running for Secretary of State, despite his sharp criticism of candidate Trump throughout the Republican primaries and into the general election.

President-elect Donald Trump met with Romney, but offered no clues as to the nature of the conversation.

Pence, however, who is running Trump’s transition team, told Fox News that rumors late last week suggesting that Romney was a candidate for Secretary of State were in fact true.

Romney, the Vice President-elect said, is currently “under active consideration” for the job as America’s top diplomat.

"The President-elect was very grateful that Gov. Mitt Romney came in. They had a good meeting. It was a warm and substantive exchange. I know he is under active consideration to be secretary of state of the United States along with some other distinguished Americans," Pence said.

Trump endorsed Romney during his 2012 bid to unseat President Obama. But tensions rose between the two in 2015 when Trump threw his hat in the ring, setting off mutual insults, accusations, and condemnations.

The former governor warned a Trump presidency would lead to “trickle-down racism” and “trickle-down bigotry”, and demanded Trump release his tax returns before the election, suggesting he was concealing embarrassing, possibly devastating information.

Trump, for his part, described Romney as a “choke artist” and a “loser”.

As he prepares himself for the work of governing, however, Trump has sought to unite the country and the Republican Party, meeting with former rival Ted Cruz and Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

The selection of Romney, arguably Trump’s most prominent critic within the party during the primaries, for Secretary of State, could go a long way in mollifying Trump’s opponents within the GOP and bring the party together.