New Hampshire
Editor’s Notebook: Chris Sununu and the ‘baked-in’ Trump vote • New Hampshire Bulletin
For just about a decade, Donald Trump has either been president or a candidate for president. Over that time, his list of actions and utterances that would have disqualified any other politician in any other American political era has grown absurdly long, yet there’s always a measure of collective surprise when he crosses a new line.
And when he does, the journalistic parlor game is to search for a “reasonable Republican” who has finally heard enough and is jumping off the Trump train. It seems one of the favored “reasonable Republicans” of the moment is our very own Gov. Chris Sununu.
Over the weekend, Sununu was asked by ABC News’ Martha Raddatz about Trump’s support for using the military against “the enemy from within” – the “radical left lunatics.” New Hampshire’s “reasonable Republican” dismissed the whole thing as “hyperbole,” arguing that Trump “didn’t go after his political enemies” last time and so surely wouldn’t do that during a second term.
In other words, Sununu is betting that “reelection-minded Trump” and “nothing-to-lose Trump” will be exactly the same guy.
Then, on Wednesday, the governor was on CNN, this time so America could find out how a “reasonable Republican” feels about Trump’s one-time chief of staff Gen. John Kelly saying the former president fits the definition of “fascist.” And, according to a report in the Atlantic, the fact that Trump heaped praise on Adolf Hitler’s generals.
Perhaps, wondered CNN host Kate Bolduan and her audience, maybe that would change how Sununu feels about Trump – and maybe even change his vote? “No,” the “reasonable Republican” said in response to those very questions, explaining with a smile that stuff like fascism and being a Hitler stan is “kind of baked into the vote” with “a guy like that.”
Huh.
I get that our departing governor is likely trying out for a cable news pundit role and that the challenge of supporting Trump while not quite championing him is kind of like Republican pundit boot camp, but he’s not walking the tightrope quite as deftly as he thinks he is. I don’t think I’ve ever met anybody who has expressed even a little bit of admiration for Hitler or his generals, but I feel confident that I wouldn’t react with the old grin-and-shrug. The word “indefensible” comes to mind, just for starters before the rage fully sets in, but Sununu went with a full dismissal because, he said, it’s “baked into the vote”? I feel like maybe that’s the kind of thing that should get you fired from your cable news pundit job and blacklisted from “reasonable Republican” circles, right? Or maybe I’m just being naive?
More than 74 million people voted for Donald Trump in 2020, and Chris Sununu is just one of them. And I don’t think anything New Hampshire’s governor says about the 2024 election is going to swing the outcome even a little bit. I don’t know how many Americans are truly undecided in this very close race, but I suspect the answer is not many. It really could go either way, and turnout will be driven primarily by which collective emotion is stronger: the desire to see Trump in office again or the need to make damn sure that doesn’t happen. I believe there are a lot of Democrats who are truly passionate about Kamala Harris’ candidacy, but I don’t think that group is nearly as large as those who just can’t bear the idea of “Trump, the Sequel.”
So the real problem with Sununu’s media junket isn’t really election related. It’s even bigger than that, as big as this election is. What does it say about the state of our politics when a popular governor – who carried 57 percent of the vote in a purple state last time around – can so casually abandon not just political principles but human ones? What matters in an election, “reasonable” supporters like Sununu tell us, is not high character – or even the illusion of high character – but the party letter next to the name and the economic policy boxes that are checked off.
The argument, or hope, seems to be that the dictatorial fantasies and tendencies of Donald Trump will be naturally restrained – by American history, popular opinion, favorable economic conditions, or the imagined influence of “reasonable Republicans.”
What could possibly go wrong? That’s Sununu’s dangerous bet, and he’s all in.
The New Hampshire Lottery offers several draw games for those aiming to win big.
Here’s a look at Saturday, July 4, 2026 results for each game:
Winning Powerball numbers from July 4 drawing
17-38-46-50-69, Powerball: 20, Power Play: 2
Check Powerball payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Pick 3 numbers from July 4 drawing
Day: 6-5-3
Evening: 8-0-6
Check Pick 3 payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Pick 4 numbers from July 4 drawing
Day: 9-8-1-3
Evening: 2-9-4-1
Check Pick 4 payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Megabucks Plus numbers from July 4 drawing
06-10-19-22-33, Megaball: 04
Check Megabucks Plus payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Millionaire for Life numbers from July 4 drawing
17-20-37-40-43, Bonus: 04
Check Millionaire for Life payouts and previous drawings here.
Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results
When are the New Hampshire Lottery drawings held?
- Powerball: 10:59 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
- Pick 3, 4: 1:10 p.m. and 6:55 p.m. daily.
- Mega Millions: 11:00 p.m. Tuesday and Friday.
- Megabucks Plus: 7:59 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
- Lucky for Life: 10:38 p.m. daily.
- Gimme 5: 6:55 p.m. Monday through Friday.
- Millionaire for Life: 11:15 p.m. daily.
This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a New Hampshire managing editor. You can send feedback using this form.
250 years in, and America is still a work in progress. Many American poets have written hymns and howls, declarations and outcries for this country that brims with so many people, and so many hopes, from all over the world.
“I Hear America Singing,” Walt Whitman wrote, in the 1850s.
“…the varied carols I hear,
Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong,
The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,
…The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of the girl sewing or washing,
Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else…”
Emma Lazarus’ “The New Colossus” was inscribed on the Statue of Liberty’s pedestal in 1903. It’s a poem in praise of immigrants who were cast out from other lands and found safe harbor in America.
“Give me your tired, your poor,” wrote Emma Lazarus.
“… your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
But Langston Hughes’ 1949 poem, “Freedom,” reminds us that many Black American families did not sail to America under the flame of a welcoming lamp, but were captive, shackled, to be sold into bondage. After the Emancipation Proclamation, many still endured segregation, bigotry and the constant threat of racist violence.
“I tire so of hearing people say, let things take their course,” wrote Langston Hughes.
“Tomorrow is another day.
I do not need my freedom when I’m dead.
I cannot live on tomorrow’s bread.”
This week, as the U.S. Supreme Court upheld birthright citizenship, you might read Shirley Geok-lin Lim’s 2017 poem, “Learning to Love America,” about how immigrants make America their own as they start families here.
“…because to have a son is to have a country,” she writes.
“…because my son will bury me here
because countries are in our blood and we bleed them”
The America great poets see is imperfect, unsettled, and unfinished, even after 250 years. Lawrence Ferlinghetti wrote in 1958 these words that still ring out:
“…I am waiting
for a rebirth of wonder
and I am waiting for someone
to really discover America”
Copyright 2026 NPR
A Times Square Ball Drop, a rolling series of ball drops, timed to occur at midnight on July 3 in every U.S. time zone from Guam to American Samoa, is part of the “Giving 4th Broadcast Benefit Show,” creating a nearly 24-hour celebration of the 250th anniversary. It’s part of the broader “Giving 4th” initiative that aims to make and establish Independence Day the biggest annual day of giving.
A time capsule will be buried in Philadelphia to be opened in 2276 on July 4. It contains a carefully curated collection of letters and artifacts reflecting the leadership, institutions, and communities that shape the country today. It will include contributions from all three branches of the U.S. federal government and submissions from each of the 50 states, Washington D.C., and five territories.
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