ET on Thursday at the University of Utah's Hinckley Institute of Politics Forum 
 
 Mitt Romney has stepped up his criticism of Donald Trump in recent days 
 
 (CNN) Mitt Romney will speak Thursday on "the state of the 2016 presidential race," he said in a press release. Romney is scheduled to address the Hinckley Institute of Politics Forum at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City on Thursday morning, according to an advisory sent to reporters. “This is not an endorsement or announcement of candidacy,” a source close to Romney tells the Boston Globe. In order to make it clear that he’s not trying to bigfoot the primary candidates and discourage Republicans from turning out to vote over the next two weeks, he may also make a point of saying that Rubio, Kasich, and even Ted Cruz would all be fine and acceptable choices for the nomination. Mitt Romney will lay out his case for why Donald Trump shouldn’t be the nominee of the Republican Party in a speech on Thursday in Utah, according to a source with knowledge of the remarks… Romney doesn’t believe Trump is the right person to lead the party, and wants to make his case before the New York businessman can start coalescing party leaders, the source said.
– One day after Donald Trump cemented his hold on the GOP nomination, Mitt Romney has gotten the rumor mills churning with the announcement that he'll give a speech Thursday morning in Utah about the state of the election. At NBC News, Andrew Rafferty cuts right to the chase with a tweet: "Close (Romney) aide says he won't endorse or get in, but tomorrow's speech 'will be worth covering.'" ABC's Rick Klein had a similar tweet: "Romney is not getting in this race, sources telling us." One safer bet is that Romney will go after Trump, as he has been doing aggressively of late—warning of a "bombshell" in his taxes and calling Trump's response to white supremacist David Duke's praise "disqualifying." The Washington Post suggests Romney's speech will echo one he gave last month in which he said the national electorate was fed up with "the failure of current political leaders to actually tackle major challenges, or to try at least." And given the election year, there's speculation that Romney is remaining visible in case something crazy happens at the GOP convention, as per this line in coverage at CNN: "In Washington, Utah's Sen. Orrin Hatch told CNN, 'If the convention is locked up, there's a possibility' Romney would run for president." At Hot Air, blogger Allahpundit has a similar sentiment: "This does, however, look an awful lot like Romney putting himself back on the radar of #NeverTrump conservative voters at the very moment that they’re starting to look around for an 'in case of emergency, break glass' candidate."