New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, a moderate Republican, said Sunday that he does not believe President-elect Trump has permanently changed the Republican Party.
“We’ve always been a spectrum of parties. There were moderates, fiscal conservatives, social moderates, and social conservatives. It’s a huge spectrum, a big tent, and it will continue to be that way.” Sununu told CNN’s “State of the Union” in an interview conducted less than two weeks before he left office.
Sununu said he did not expect anyone to replace Trump as leader of the Republican Party after his term ends.
“Trump is Trump. There is no such thing as ‘Trump Lite’. There will be no ‘Trump 2.0,’” Sununu said. “I always say Trump is who he is. Because he has built himself into the American psyche for 40 years. I mean, it’s really been since the ’80s.”
Asked whether he thought Trump had permanently changed the party, Sununu said: “Oh, no. Oh, absolutely not.”
He suggested that he didn’t think the party’s basic ideology had changed that much.
“To be honest, I think there’s a lot more hardcore regular conservatism out there already. Traditional conservatism is already there.” Sununu said when asked if he thought the party would “return” to “normal conservatism.”
“He brought a different style. Certainly a lot of problems arise from time to time, but fundamentally the principle remains the same. The bigger DNA problem is with the Democratic Party,” Sununu said.
Sununu suspended his campaign after endorsing former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley’s 2024 presidential bid, and he supported Trump.
When asked what criticism he received of Trump in the 2024 primary, Sununu said Trump “wasn’t my first choice, wasn’t my second, third or fourth choice in the primary process, but obviously he won the primary.” “I did,” he said.
“I don’t take back one word of what I said. I think there were a lot of other great candidates in terms of moving the party forward. He won the primary, was nominated, and easily won the American people’s vote. He has to pass, right? At this point, delivery is key.”
