John E. Sununu’s new campaign ad is raising eyebrows and drawing laughs on major news networks, but it also makes two claims that aren’t holding up to a fact-check.
One says Sununu “opposed the war in Iran.” The other says he “opposed the trade war with Canada.”
For most of his campaign, Sununu defended the complete opposite side on both issues. He argued in favor of Trump’s tariffs, including when he was asked about Canada. He praised the war in Iran when it started. He changed his position on the war in June and on the Canada tariffs by September.
The ad, released Tuesday, comes two weeks before Election Day. Sununu, the Republican nominee for US Senate, has been creating distance from President Donald Trump, who endorsed him in February.
The ad’s tariff claim also covers only one country. It leaves out Trump’s tariffs on China and on most of the world, which Sununu has defended.
What did Sununu say about Trump’s tariffs as a candidate?
Sununu criticized Trump’s tariffs before he entered the race, New Hampshire Public Radio reported. Once he was running, he defended them.
Weeks before his campaign launch, Sununu was asked on the Pulse of NH whether he applauded Trump’s tariffs.
“The economic impact has been very modest,” he said on the show in September 2025. “It certainly hasn’t impacted inflation directly in any significant way.”
When he launched his campaign in October 2025, WMUR asked him about the harm tariffs could do to New Hampshire, including its trade with Canada. Sununu defended Trump’s tariff policy.
“I think what the president has done is recognize that many countries—China is a good example—they have nontariff barriers,” he said. “The message that these countries have to do more to get rid of their nontariff barriers is a very fair one.”
He did not say he opposed tariffs on Canada. He said he would like Congress and the president to “settle on a tariff rate.”
In February, the Pulse of NH asked whether the tariffs had cost New Hampshire residents and businesses. Sununu said they had “complicated things a little bit,” then pointed to the elimination of federal taxes on tips, part of the tax and spending law Trump signed.
“The other side of that coin is we’ve got no tax on tips now, right?” he said.
When did Sununu change his position on Canada?
By September, he had turned against the tariffs on Canada. “I don’t think it’s the right thing to pick a trade war with Canada,” he told Fox News Digital in an interview published Sept. 8, the day of the state primary.
At his first debate with Democrat Chris Pappas on Oct. 13, Sununu said he opposed tariffs on Canadian products and building materials, the Union Leader reported. He had called for dropping tariffs on building materials in an August interview with NHPR.
Trump’s tariffs on Canada hit close to home. Canadian tourism in New Hampshire dropped roughly 30% in summer 2025 after the US and Canada imposed tariffs on each other. This summer, the Trump administration announced another 50% tariff on about $20 billion in Canadian imports. A Hopkinton dairy farmer whose fertilizer, diesel, and glass milk bottles come from Canada called the new duties “really scary.”
What does the ad leave out about Trump’s tariffs?
The ad’s tariff claim names one country: It says Sununu “opposed the trade war with Canada.” It does not mention Trump’s tariffs on China or the rest of the world, which Sununu has defended.
New Hampshire was hit especially hard by the tariff fight with Canada as a significant share of the state’s imports come from there, the Granite Post reported.
On China, Sununu has sided with Trump. “When you’re dealing with a country like China, I completely understand what he’s trying to accomplish,” he told WMUR’s CloseUp in March. He said the goal was to restrict China’s access to American markets and technology.
He has also defended the tariffs Trump placed on most of the world. In April 2025, Trump announced a 10% tariff on goods from nearly every country and higher rates on many others, including 34% on China, Forbes Australia reported. Trump called them reciprocal tariffs.
The Supreme Court struck down the tariffs imposed under the emergency powers law in February, ruling 6-3 that the law Trump used doesn’t let a president set tariffs. Sununu pointed to other options. “The fact is, there are other sections of that law, several other sections that do give the president ability to impose tariffs,” he said in the same CloseUp interview.
In April, Sununu said other countries’ trade barriers were “what I think President Trump was trying to address with many of his reciprocal tariffs,” on the Contact Politics podcast. His complaint was that the rates kept changing. “They’ve been unpredictable, and that’s made it really hard for businesses here in New Hampshire to plan,” he said.
Sununu does not oppose tariffs outright, the Granite Post reported in September. He has said that if there are going to be tariffs, they should be set at “a reasonable rate” and that Congress should have a bigger say.
Put together, his break with Trump on tariffs covers two things: Canada and building materials. On China and the tariffs on most of the world, he has backed the president.
What did Sununu say about the Iran war when it started?
The US and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, killing Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Sununu called the military action a “pivotal moment” for the region and the world, the Pulse of NH reported two days later.
A week later, he called Trump’s war “very effective” in an interview on WABC radio. “I do think [his] objectives are clear,” he said.
In another March interview, Sununu was asked about rising gas prices. He called the mission “important and critical.”
When did Sununu change his position on Iran?
By June, he was saying he would not have started the war. “If you’re asking me if I would have done this, no, no,” Sununu told WMUR, according to NHPR.
That same month, a University of New Hampshire Survey Center poll found two-thirds of Granite Staters thought Trump’s decision to attack Iran was wrong, NHPR reported.
Even after the shift, Sununu continued to credit the war with weakening Iran’s nuclear program and ballistic missiles and cutting off its funding for Hamas and Hezbollah, NHPR reported.
In an August interview with NHPR, Sununu said he did not support sending ground troops. He faulted the decision to go in without a plan to protect the Strait of Hormuz, calling it “a tactical mistake that was made.” Asked whether he would support billions more for the war, he pointedly did not answer the question.
At the Oct. 13 debate, Sununu said he is against the war in Iran without a plan to keep the strait open, according to the Union Leader.
The strait is a narrow shipping lane that carries oil out of the Persian Gulf. Iran closed it in March, and attacks on ships there are at their highest level of the war, Al Jazeera reported last week. Crude oil was trading around $104 a barrel, up from about $72 before the war.
There is no ceasefire in place. The US is blockading Iran’s southern ports, and indirect talks continue through Pakistan and Qatar.
How do New Hampshire voters feel about the war?
In a University of New Hampshire Survey Center poll released Sept. 23, 75% of New Hampshire residents said the war was going poorly for the U.S.
