Outgoing New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) brushed apart Elon Musk’s potential conflicts of curiosity whereas praising the tech baron’s campaign to get Washington’s fiscal home again so as.
Sununu downplayed fears that Musk’s profitable authorities contracts may affect his coverage recommendation to the incoming Trump administration and advised that the world’s richest man is simply too rich to care about getting extra money.
“Everyone has a conflict of interest at some level,” Sununu advised CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday when pressed in regards to the billionaire’s monetary pursuits.
Moderator Dana Bash pushed again saying, “But that’s like a pretty big one.”
“True, the guy’s worth $450 billion as of today and this month,” Sununu admitted. “I don’t think he’s doing it for the money.”
“He’s doing it for the bigger project and the bigger vision of America. He doesn’t need the dollars. He really doesn’t,” Sununu added. “He’s so rich, he’s so removed from the potential financial influence of it.”
Sununu portrayed himself as a kindred spirit of types with Musk. Each males have a background in engineering, which the Granite State Republican studied on the Massachusetts Institute of Expertise.
Moreover, each males have espoused extra conventional fiscal conservative views in the case of authorities spending.
Sununu was additionally optimistic that Musk would be capable to trim down authorities bloat through the nascent Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE), which regardless of its identify, is just not truly a authorities division.
“This is a car crash, if you will, of financial crises coming,” Sununu cautioned. “[Interest on the debt] goes to about $1.8 trillion in 10 years because our rates are so high now.”
“My big argument here is states have already found all these efficiencies that Washington’s talking about. We have already done it.”
The New Hampshire governor, who toyed with a 2024 run himself, endorsed former presidential hopeful Nikki Haley and was outspokenly essential of Trump throughout the major course of.
Apart from Trump’s temperament, considered one of Sununu’s greatest gripes was authorities spending beneath the true property mogul’s first time period. However this time round, Sununu is optimistic that issues can be completely different.
“I’m cautiously optimistic for a couple of reasons. Number one, I don’t think [Trump] understood how Congress really fundamentally worked in 2017 and 2018,” Sununu defined.
“Republicans lost in 2018 because they talked a big game and got nothing done. I think there’s a different team he’s surrounded himself with, a little more professional of a team within the White House itself,” he added. “And he has outsiders.”
In Congress, Republicans are set to have a slimmer Home majority than they’d throughout the begin of Trump’s first time period in 2017. Fiscal hawks inside the get together have indicated a willingness to flex their muscle groups throughout key price range fights.
Earlier this month, for instance, Musk helped gas a revolt towards a bipartisan authorities funding invoice that Home Republican management negotiated with Democrats.
Sununu, who bucked strain to run for the US Senate in 2022, opted towards searching for reelection for a fourth consecutive time period as governor. He didn’t face time period limits.
He now plans on heading to the personal sector when Gov.-elect Kelly Ayotte (R) strikes into the governor’s mansion.
