Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) said he laughs at the phrase “America first” and questioned a growing sentiment of what he terms “isolationism” within the GOP.

In an interview on MSNBC, Romney told host Stephanie Ruhle that, “It’s unimaginable that in the party of Reagan and George Herbert Walker Bush and George W. Bush and John McCain and others that we would see a growing isolationism in our party.”

Romney, well known for his vocal opposition to Donald Trump, says the term “America first” flows from talk TV and talk radio and hosts like Tucker Carlson who Romney claims say “outrageous things” that are then embraced by their populist base.

He accused opponents of interventionism of forgetting that America and its economy are “connected to the world,” and that “America is putting ourselves first when we’re involved in the world, when we stop bad guys.” Romney appears to imply that this connection can only exist under the threat of military force and not through voluntary trade and commerce between the U.S. and other nations.

It was just a few weeks ago that Romney referred to a hotly contested $96 billion foreign aid package as, “The most important vote we will ever take as U.S. Senators.”

The U.S. Senator from Utah did not acknowledge a war-weary GOP electorate who are growing tired of seeing their tax dollars finance conflicts around the world that  have nothing to do with protecting the freedoms and property of Americans.

Romney told MSNBC, “How about a world where China and Russia control the world and we have our own little island? That’s not a world where Americans are going to be safe or prosperous. We’re safe and prosperous when the world follows the orders that have existed over the last 75 years.”

That “safe and prosperous” sentiment might strike some Americans as a bit tone deaf, especially those who are struggling to make ends meet while hundreds of billions of their tax dollars are being spent on foreign adventures in faraway places.

Not to mention the reality that the open ended wars in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan and ongoing construction of military bases all around the world are resulting in less freedom here at home as well as higher government costs and debt.