Republican Chris Sununu Explains Trump Administration Actions during a Sesno Series Discussion

This story originally appeared in GW Today.

In the third “Sesno Series” conversations this week, Frank Sesno, director of strategic initiatives at the George Washington University School of Media and Public Affairs, interviewed Republican Chris Sununu, the former New Hampshire governor, about the first weeks of the Trump administration, democracy and other issues.

Their exchange ramped up to a frenetic pace in short order in the crowded Jack Morton Auditorium.

Sesno offered a sampling of the “fast and furious” executive orders and other actions taken by President Donald Trump since his inauguration on Jan. 21: “Banning birth right citizenship. Blowing up USAID (the United States Agency for International Development). Firing inspectors general. Booting the board and presidency of the Kennedy Center. Granting pardons to the most violent [Jan. 6] criminals. DOGE, (the Department of Government Efficiency being run by Elon Musk), Elon Musk [with] access to files, sensitive data and all that kind of stuff. Pulling research contracts that have already been signed which affects universities and others. Firing federal workers en masse.”

Sesno said he’s not seen anything like this moment in time as a longtime journalist and observer in Washington.

“The way [Trump] is going about it,” Sununu said, “I love it and hate it at the same time.”

GW Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Christopher Alan Bracey opened the evening session, titled “Disruption, Discord, Democracy: The Road Ahead,” by welcoming the audience to the discussion that would “explore the most pressing questions facing the country at this very moment.”

The Sesno Series, funded by GW alumni Ted Segal, B.A. ’03, and Meredith Perla Segal, B. Accy. ’05, was also being livestreamed and was later aired on C-Span.

Introducing Sesno as a GW Presidential Medal recipient and director for the university’s Alliance for a Sustainable Future, Bracey said, “It is GW’s mission to be a convenor of thoughtful leadership in the pursuit of ideals and in making this world a better place to enable tough intellectual conversations about deep divisions and pressing challenges.”

Sesno set up the conversation with Sununu by noting that he is among the few Republicans to accept GW’s invitation to talk about the administration’s recent actions and what they mean for American democracy. Sununu, a civil and environmental engineer by training, comes from a political family. His father was also once governor of New Hampshire and chief of staff for President George H. W. Bush.

Sesno started by asking Sununu to address the anxiety and concern expressed by GW students in video clips played at the beginning of the discussion in which many of the students expressed anxiety with the velocity and intentions of the administration’s executive orders.

Sununu told the students that what they’re seeing is a product of Republicans and Democrats communicating with each other through social media, which reduces everything to the dog whistles of “the Republicans are going to destroy democracy, and the Democrats are killing the Constitution.”

“We can say anything, and it goes out to the whole world,” he said. “It’s not verified. It’s not checked. 98% of it is what is happening nationally on a political scale as opposed to what is happening locally, and when you’re doing it, you don’t have to look somebody in the eye and have an actual discussion.”

New Hampshire has been able to preserve bipartisanship by “throwing politics aside, limiting taxes…and limited government,” he said. “Live Free or Die are more than four cool words on a license plate.”

In a state with a population of just about 1.5 million, and a state legislature third only in size to the United Kingdom’s parliament and the U.S. House of Representatives, Sununu defied the doubters and got a balanced budget passed. That’s one reason he said he likes what he sees happening in Washington.

“Don’t tell me you can’t get something done,” he said. “Either push back on your own party or work with people on the other side.”

Sesno countered, saying that issuing executive orders doesn’t allow working with members of the opposition party. “You just explained how you got a bipartisan budget, by engaging the other side,” he said. “If a Republican criticizes Trump, they’re in trouble. Never mind Democrats. He hasn’t talked to them.”

“What Trump is saying,” Sununu said, “is ‘you had 25 years. That’s it. So now I’m going to bring a group in here.  We’re going to go hard and fast. We’re going to bring a lot of recommendations. We’re going to do everything under the sun that people have talked about and not had the courage to do, and we’re going to bring it to Congress…But we’re doing this because you haven’t.’”

“I am not an apologist for Trump or Elon Musk,” Sununu said, adding that valuable federal programs such as some in USAID would be preserved. He described the Paris Climate Agreement that was tossed out by an executive order, as “nonsense.”

“It’s just an unenforceable document that is costing the country massive amounts of money in which the United States keeps making huge investments while the Chinas of the world are putting up 50 factories a year with no accountability,” Sununu said.

“This gets back to the heart of what I’m all about, which is fiscal responsibility,” he said.  “We owe $36 trillion. Does the government owe $36 trillion? No. You owe $36 trillion. Your neighbors do. Your kids do. You owe that money.”

Sesno asked if Sununu was okay with half of the 10,870 federal government employees in New Hampshire being fired.

“Yes,” Sununu said. “Absolutely. The government isn’t here to keep you employed. You got to make tough decisions. Nobody in Washington wants to make tough decisions. It stinks. It’s not easy. It’s painful. But you owe the money.”

As for doing away with the Department of Education, which Trump said he is considering, Sununu argued that it should be decentralized and left to states and localities to deal education policy. Even though as governor, he formed a diversity, equity and inclusivity (DEI) commission to deal with “sensitive racial issues“ in the police department, he argued the Trump administration is following rules set by the U.S. Supreme Court that public institutions can’t do that.

The message he hoped to leave with the students was that the best public servants are those with real world experience, so go work for a nonprofit, get a job in an office. “That is really important for the big issues, how to build teams, approach challenges and learn how to lose,” Sununu said.

“Don’t jump into politics, which can be polarizing, if you don’ t understand what the issues are about,” he said. “Have a strong cynicism of government and do not buy what we are shoveling.”