Mitt Romney says Ron DeSantis 'looks like he's got a toothache' when smiling for selfies with Iowa voters: 'There's just no warmth at all'

• Even Sen. Mitt Romney has noticed Ron DeSantis's strange mannerisms.
• In a forthcoming book, the Utah senator says DeSantis "looks like he's got a toothache" in selfies.
• He also pondered whether DeSantis, who's "smarter than Trump," is ultimately more dangerous.

Even Sen. Mitt Romney is taking note of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' strange mannerisms.

In a preview of Atlantic reporter McKay Coppins' forthcoming biography of the Utah Republican shared with POLITICO on Thursday, Romney observed that the 2024 presidential candidate appears pained when interacting with voters.

"He looks like he's got a toothache," Romney observed about DeSantis' selfies with voters in Iowa, adding of DeSantis generally: "There's just no warmth at all."

Romney also described DeSantis as "smarter than [former President Donald] Trump," though he wondered whether there was "peril to having someone who's smart and pulling in a direction that's dangerous."

Reached for comment, a DeSantis spokesperson referred Insider to a tweet from the campaign that did not address Romney's comments about the governor's mannerisms, but argued that DeSantis had "enacted conservative policy instead of just talking about it" like Romney.

DeSantis, who remains the distant runner-up to Trump in national polls of GOP primary voters, has developed a reputation during the campaign for social awkwardness.

It's become such a meme that controversial author Michael Wolff claimed in his own book that DeSantis kicked  Tucker Carlson's dog during a meeting at the former Fox News host's home — a claim both DeSantis and Carlson denied.

"This is absurd," Carlson wrote in a text to Insider at the time. "He never touched my dog, obviously."

Romney's book is set to be released next week, and the Utah senator's musings about his colleagues is already generating waves on Capitol Hill.

In one notable excerpt that's already been published, Romney told Coppins that he doesn't "know that I can disrespect someone more than JD Vance," the Republican senator from Ohio who went from a prominent "Never Trumper" to a fervent defender of the former president.

Vance later told Insider that he has no problem "working with people who badmouth me in public."

Romney, a former 2012 presidential candidate himself, is retiring at the end of his current term in January 2025.