Does he hate him or love him? Honestly, it's kind of hard to tell how Mitt Romney feels about our 45th president.

Here's how Romney described Donald Trump earlier this year, when Trump was still just running for the Republican nomination:

And here's how Romney described Trump on Tuesday, after the two had a white-tablecloth, candlelight dinner of frog legs and diver scallops:

My, how an election changes things. Romney isn't the only Republican who has pulled a 180 on Trump. But he is arguably the most obvious, because, as The Fix's Aaron Blake points out, Romney never had to say bad things about Trump. He wasn't running against him like Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush and Chris Christie were. Romney voluntarily went after Trump. And that makes his capitulation all the more blatant.

Awkward much? (John Angelillo/Pool via Bloomberg News)

To try to better understand why, let's put ourselves in Romney's $250 million shoes:

1) #Respect: Quite frankly, Trump won the presidency and Romney didn't. Romney acknowledged as much in a statement he put out after his dinner with Trump: “By the way, it's not easy winning. I know that myself. He did something I tried to do and was unsuccessful in.” Giving Trump props is at least worth an awkward dinner.

2) Patriotism: There's a vein of conservatism that both abhors Trump and wants to help him succeed. Romney is probably in that camp, writes Fix boss Chris Cillizza: “The same motivation that drove him to run for governor or take over the failing Salt Lake City Winter Olympics or even run for president — a desire to make things better and a belief he can do so — is what compels him to make nice with someone that, from a personal perspective, he clearly holds in utter contempt.”

3) A job: Those close to Romney tell The Post's Philip Rucker that he does actually want the secretary of state job (which is what Trump is reportedly considering him for. More on that below). And I can tell you from experience that it's easier to get the job you want if you're nice to the people making the hiring decisions.

Whatever the reason Romney somewhat-painfully changed his tune on Trump, it's undeniable that Tuesday's kumbaya dinner was a spectacle. Trump made sure to welcome in cameras so the world could basically watch Romney eat his words.

One more time. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

And if it seems as if Trump is gloating in those photos, well, he is. He has reason to. After forcing Romney to eat frog legs in front of the cameras, Trump's takeover of the GOP is complete, writes Rucker: “Trump has officially and almost completely cowed the elements of the Republican Party that had shunned the real estate tycoon and reality-television star during the turbulent campaign.”

Who is Romney's competition to be secretary of state?