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Here's How the GOP Can Move Beyond Trumpism
Daily BeastNew Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu did what so many Republicans claim privately they’d like to do—he took on Donald Trump, calling him “crazy.”
Sununu added, “I don’t think he’s so crazy that you could put him in a mental institution. But I think if he were in one, he ain’t getting out!"
Sununu got a lot of laughs for his profane and comedic takedown of Trump at the Gridiron Dinner, a century-old tradition where journalists and politicians roast each other. But the governor didn’t just open the door to mocking his party’s leader—he blew it off its hinges at a very high-profile public gathering.
Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland said he hadn’t heard a Republican drop that many f-bombs since the Nixon administration. He also praised Sununu as the vanguard of a new GOP that dares to speak the truth, then assailed him for taking credit for federal spending in his state passed by Democrats while simultaneously denouncing Washington politicians for their free spending. The crowd of media and political professionals, as evidenced by their enthusiastic response, seemed to sense that something significant had shifted with this fresh face grabbing the spotlight and saying the emperor has no clothes.
“I don’t know a single Republican who was surprised by what Sununu said. He said what they were thinking,” Republican pollster and media maven Frank Luntz told The Daily Beast. “They won’t say it [in public], but behind his back, they think he’s a child. They’re laughing at him. That’s what made it [Sununu’s comments] significant.”
When the mockery begins, the fear falls away. “Trump isn’t the same man he was a year ago,” Luntz says. “Even many Republicans are tired of going back and rehashing the 2020 election. Everybody else has moved on and in Washington everyone believes he lost the election.”
Sununu added, “I don’t think he’s so crazy that you could put him in a mental institution. But I think if he were in one, he ain’t getting out!"
Sununu got a lot of laughs for his profane and comedic takedown of Trump at the Gridiron Dinner, a century-old tradition where journalists and politicians roast each other. But the governor didn’t just open the door to mocking his party’s leader—he blew it off its hinges at a very high-profile public gathering.
Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland said he hadn’t heard a Republican drop that many f-bombs since the Nixon administration. He also praised Sununu as the vanguard of a new GOP that dares to speak the truth, then assailed him for taking credit for federal spending in his state passed by Democrats while simultaneously denouncing Washington politicians for their free spending. The crowd of media and political professionals, as evidenced by their enthusiastic response, seemed to sense that something significant had shifted with this fresh face grabbing the spotlight and saying the emperor has no clothes.
“I don’t know a single Republican who was surprised by what Sununu said. He said what they were thinking,” Republican pollster and media maven Frank Luntz told The Daily Beast. “They won’t say it [in public], but behind his back, they think he’s a child. They’re laughing at him. That’s what made it [Sununu’s comments] significant.”
When the mockery begins, the fear falls away. “Trump isn’t the same man he was a year ago,” Luntz says. “Even many Republicans are tired of going back and rehashing the 2020 election. Everybody else has moved on and in Washington everyone believes he lost the election.”
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