Utah's largest newspaper slammed Sen. Orrin Hatch Orrin Grant HatchPhRMA CEO 'hopeful' Trump officials will back down on drug pricing move Live coverage: Trump AG pick grilled on Mueller probe at confirmation hearing Trump praises RNC chairwoman after she criticizes her uncle Mitt Romney MORE (Utah) in a Christmas Day editorial on Monday, calling on the senior GOP senator to retire. 
 
 The Salt Lake Tribune’s editorial board named Hatch their 2017 “Utahn of the Year,” a designation the paper says is given to someone who has “had the biggest impact. For good or for ill.” 
 
 The newspaper said Hatch earned the title based on “his utter lack of integrity that rises from his unquenchable thirst for power.” 
 
 “It would be good for Utah if Hatch, having finally caught the Great White Whale of tax reform, were to call it a career,” the paper's editorial board wrote. “If he doesn’t, the voters should end it for him.” 
 
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 The Salt Lake Tribune went after Hatch for his involvement in President Trump Donald John TrumpPentagon update to missile defense doctrine will explore space-base technologies, lasers to counter threats Giuliani: 'I never said there was no collusion' between the Trump campaign and Russia Former congressmen, RNC members appointed to Trump administration roles MORE’s decision earlier this year to shrink two national monuments in the state, saying there was “no constitutional, legal or environmental logic" behind the move. 
 
 “To all appearances — appearances promoted by Hatch — this anti-environmental, anti-Native American and, yes, anti-business decommissioning of national monuments was basically a political favor the White House did for Hatch,” the editorial states. 
 
 The newspaper also noted Hatch’s involvement in the passage of the GOP tax plan last week given his role as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. 
 
 The plan has been criticized by opponents who say it primarily benefits wealthy individuals and corporations, claims that backers of the plan reject. 
 
 The editorial also criticizes Hatch for appearing to be preparing to run for an eighth term in 2018, after saying in 2012 that it would be his last campaign. 
 
 “Once again, Hatch has moved to freeze the field to make it nigh unto impossible for any number of would-be senators to so much as mount a credible challenge,” the paper said. 
 
 “That’s not only not fair to all of those who were passed over. It is basically a theft from the Utah electorate.” 
 
 The Hill reached out to a spokesman for Hatch for comment. 
 
 Rumors have swirled that Hatch could retire to make room for 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney to run for his Senate seat, but Hatch’s office has denied the reports. 
 
 A poll from earlier this year found that three-quarters of Utahns want Hatch to retire. 
 
 The filing deadline for Utah Senate candidates is March 15. ||||| Donald Trump is going all out to persuade seven-term Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch to seek reelection — a push aimed in no small part at keeping the president’s longtime nemesis, Mitt Romney, out of the Senate. 
 
 Romney has been preparing to run for Hatch’s seat on the long-held assumption that the 83-year-old would retire. Yet Hatch, the longest-serving Republican senator in history, is now refusing to rule out another campaign — a circumstance Romney’s infuriated inner circle blames squarely on the president. Their suspicions are warranted: Trump has sounded off to friends about how he doesn't like the idea of a Sen. Romney. 
 
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 The president’s mostly behind-the-scenes campaign to sway Hatch will burst into public view on Monday, when he arrives in Salt Lake City to hold a well-choreographed event designed to showcase his affection for the powerful Senate Finance Committee chairman. 
 
 Trump’s appearance is ostensibly official in purpose: He will announce his decision to reduce the size of Utah’s Bears Ears and Grand-Staircase Escalante national monuments, a cause that Hatch has championed. But it's also undeniably political: to use the trappings of presidential power to get a veteran lawmaker to rethink his long anticipated plans to leave the Senate. 
 
 Hatch is slated to ride with Trump both ways on Air Force One — a total of roughly nine hours round trip. After descending from the plane together, the two will meet with Mormon leaders and then head to the state Capitol for the signing of the executive order, according to three White House officials. Hatch will introduce Trump, who in turn is expected to lavish praise on the senator. After the order is signed, Hatch is expected to receive the president’s pen. 
 
 The public display of affection isn’t just about blocking Romney, senior administration officials say. Trump has felt loyal to Hatch since the senator defended him in the wake of the “Access Hollywood” tape episode late in the 2016 campaign. Hatch stuck by Trump even as other members of Utah’s Republican delegation withdrew their support. 
 
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 More recently, Hatch has played a key role in moving Trump's prized tax reform bill through the Senate. 
 
 Trump aides say the president's bond with Hatch began long before Romney emerged as a potential successor. Hatch visited Trump in the Oval Office during the first week of his presidency for a lengthy discussion about the then-vacant Supreme Court seat and Utah’s national monuments. 
 
 Yet people close to Romney are convinced that Trump’s main motivation is to keep the 2012 GOP presidential nominee out of the Senate. Romney himself has expressed frustration with the ongoing uncertainty about Hatch’s plans, said three Republicans who’ve spoken with him recently. The former Massachusetts governor has pointed out that it was Hatch who urged him to consider running in the first place, but now appears to be wavering on whether to step aside. 
 
 "Hatch is a known entity for Trump and has been really good for the president for the most part," said Kirk Jowers, a friend of Romney who formerly served as the chairman and general counsel of his political action committee. "He knows for a fact he's not going to get that with Romney. I don't know that he knows what he's going to get with Romney, but it's not going to be what he's got with Hatch." 
 
 Indeed, there’s widespread concern within the White House that Romney in the Senate could make Trump’s life difficult. During the 2016 campaign, the former Massachusetts governor emerged as the de-facto leader of the GOP establishment’s “Never Trump” campaign, delivering a nationally watched speech in which he blasted candidate Trump as a “phony, a fraud” and implored the party to stop him. 
 
 Hatch, by contrast, went all-in for Trump in Utah, where Trump received just 46 percent of the vote but still carried the state because of a third-party candidate. Before the election, the senator also campaigned for Trump in four states, hitting the trail with the candidate’s son Donald Trump Jr. While many Republicans air their issues with Trump publicly, Hatch has usually chosen to telegraph his concerns in private discussions with the president. 
 
 “I’ll just put it this way. Sen. Hatch was one of the leading voices for the president during the entire campaign,” said Don Peay, a Trump family friend who led his Utah campaign. “Hatch clearly was a strong supporter of Trump from the beginning,” said Peay, who helped to organize Monday’s event. 
 
 Trump’s push to get Hatch to run for an eighth term has taken place in furtive phone calls and West Wing visits. In early October, the senator called the president to invite him to Utah to announce his monument plan, said one person briefed on the discussion. 
 
 Near the end of the call, the president conveyed a request. “Orrin,” he said, “I really hope you will consider running again.” 
 
 Hatch told Trump he hadn't made up his mind. 
 
 Their mutual endearment has at times been public. When Hatch was asked last week by reporters about Trump’s decision to retweet several anti-Muslim videos, the senator said he wasn’t “aware” of the firestorm — and then praised Trump. 
 
 “I’ll say this for ya.’ He’s been one of the best presidents I’ve served under, and the reason is he’s not afraid to make decisions. He’s not afraid to take on the big boss around here,” Hatch said. 
 
 Trump responded by tweeting out a video of the remark. “Thank you @SenOrrinHatch,” he added. “Let’s continue MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” 
 
 Romney’s post-election relationship with Trump has been far more ... complicated. 
 
 During the transition, Trump considered appointing Romney secretary of state. Trump was expecting not to like Romney but was surprised by how well they jelled during the interview process, something he told aides repeatedly at the time. Trump ultimately decided against Romney. 
 
 As the year wore on, the former governor praised the new president for some of his personnel choices. But he also made his differences known. 
 
 During an appearance in Park City, Utah, in June, Romney told a group of prominent Republican donors that Trump’s White House was too consumed by palace intrigue. He also offered an implicit critique of the president’s “America First” approach to foreign policy, growing emotional as he outlined the country’s humanitarian responsibilities overseas. 
 
 Then, in August, Romney struck again — this time to implore the president to apologize for equating white supremacists who sowed violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, with their counterprotesters. 
 
 “Mr. President,” Romney wrote in a Facebook message, “act now for the good of the country.” 
 
 Romney has been making the rounds in Utah amid speculation that Hatch is nearing retirement, huddling with an array of Republican figures including state House Speaker Greg Hughes. Romney has told people that while he wouldn’t be reflexively anti-Trump as a senator, he would be more than willing to let his criticisms be known. 
 
 Some Trump allies contend that Utah would be better served by having a presidential loyalist in the seat. 
 
 "I think he could be a great ally of the president but, as you well know, they're very different people and have very different personalities," said Hughes, who recently met with Romney in his office in the state Capitol. "Sen. Hatch,” he added, “understands the president very well." 
 
 Asked who the president would rather have in the seat, Hughes, who was once mentioned as a candidate for a position in the Trump administration, said he had little doubt: "I think the president enjoys having a strong ally." 
 
 Romney, for his part, won’t be at Monday event. He was invited but, several people close to him said, will be out of town. 
 
 Over the weekend, Romney wrote a tweet that underscored his respect for Hatch but also, perhaps, hinted at a belief that the senator had now accomplished what he needed to before moving on. 
 
 “A very big week for Utah’s own Senator @OrrinHatch,” he wrote, “with tax reform, Bears Ears reversion, and a presidential visit.” ||||| This post has been updated now that Hatch has announced his retirement. There had been some uncertainty in recent weeks about Hatch's intentions, but he made it official Tuesday. 
 
 The Fix's Amber Phillips explores the potential ramifications of the upcoming retirement of Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah.). (Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post) 
 
 Mitt Romney's path to a U.S. Senate seat just cleared up, and now he's on a collision course for President Trump. 
 
 Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) announced Tuesday that he will not seek reelection in 2018, and Romney is expected to run to succeed him. After publicly weighing a repeat presidential bid in 2016, then publicly denouncing Trump, then unsuccessfully seeking to become Trump's secretary of state, Romney's interest in the Senate became apparent. 
 
 Romney, of course, served as governor of Massachusetts, not Utah. But his Utah bona fides are crystal clear -- starting with his stewardship of the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics -- and he'd almost undoubtedly waltz into the Senate if he ran. While it's still early and other candidates could be tempted to give it a shot, this is a guy who won Utah by 48 points in the 2012 presidential election and polls show remains astoundingly popular there. A recent survey showed 71 percent of Utahns viewed him favorably. 
 
 But one person who should be watching this with particular concern is Trump. 
 
 Basically no Republican criticized Trump as harshly as Romney did on the 2016 campaign trail. Yes, Romney then sought to lead Trump's State Department and said some nice things about Trump, but he was turned down for that job, which may make the fire burn even hotter. 
 
 And most importantly, unlike other Republicans in red states, Romney wouldn't necessarily feel the need to temper his opposition to Trump in the Senate. Utah is about equally as anti-Trump as it is pro-Romney. Trump did win the state, but that victory owed almost entirely to the state's Republican lean. Polls there showed Trump's favorable rating as low as 19 percent and his unfavorable rating as high as 71 percent, largely thanks to Mormons disliking him. 
 
 On Jan. 2, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders wouldn't say whether President Trump is open to supporting Mitt Romney for the Utah Senate seat that will be vacated by Sen. Orrin Hatch. (Reuters) 
 
 GOP senators like John McCain (Ariz.), Bob Corker (Tenn.), Jeff Flake (Ariz.) and Ben Sasse (Neb.) have certainly been willing to break with Trump publicly on certain things, but they also have pro-Trump constituencies back home to worry about. Most every Republican who has criticized Trump has seen his numbers tank with the GOP base. 
 
 And their criticisms have never really been of the sort that Romney offered in 2016. A sampling of what Romney offered: 
 
 “If we Republicans choose Donald Trump as our nominee, the prospects for a safe and prosperous future are greatly diminished.” 
 
 “But you say, wait, wait, wait, isn’t he a huge business success? Doesn’t he know what he’s talking about? No, he isn’t and no he doesn’t.” 
 
 “Now, Donald Trump tells us that he is very, very smart. I’m afraid that when it comes to foreign policy he is very, very not smart.” 
 
 “Dishonesty is Donald Trump’s hallmark.” 
 
 “Think of Donald Trump’s personal qualities: The bullying, the greed, the showing off, the misogyny, the absurd third grade theatrics.” 
 
 These comments were offered in the midst of a primary campaign in which Romney wanted someone else to win. And plenty of other Republicans said really bad things about Trump at the time before coming around, endorsing him and trying to make the most of their new Trump realities. But Romney never did — at least, not until he thought he could affect the Trump administration from within. 
 
 Trump's numbers in Utah have improved since the 2016 campaign, but they remain soft, and Romney's credibility with the GOP base there provides him a unique opportunity to go head-to-head with Trump, should he decide to do so. He would also do so in what is likely to be a pretty closely divided Senate, where one vote can matter greatly (as we've discovered frequently over the last year). 
 
 And in our highly partisan era, it could be a completely unusual and potentially must-see political dynamic.
– Utah's Orrin Hatch, the longest-serving Republican in the Senate, says he won't be running for re-election in 2018. The 83-year-old announced the move on Twitter. “Every good fighter knows when to hang up the gloves," he says in a video. "And for me, that time is soon approaching. That’s why after much prayer and discussion with family and friends, I’ve decided to retire at the end of this term." The move paves the way for Mitt Romney, a frequent critic of President Trump, to run for his seat. Details and developments: Unpopular at home: Hatch has been in the Senate for four decades and currently chairs the powerful Finance Committee, a post that allowed him to play a big role in the GOP's recent tax overhaul. But his clout doesn't seem to matter in Utah, where polls show that about 75% of residents wanted him to retire, reports the Salt Lake Tribune. (The newspaper itself issued a scathing editorial calling for him to do just that.) Trump unhappy: The president is "very sad" upon hearing the news, says spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders. The New York Times reports that the president, pleased with Hatch's work on the tax plan, had been encouraging him to run again. If nothing else, that would keep Romney—who has been vocal in his criticism of Trump—out of the Senate. (Still, Trump reportedly considered Romney for secretary of state.)