GOP Pollster: Republican Leaders Are Mocking 'Child' Trump Behind His Back

Longtime Republican pollster Frank Luntz says GOP leaders are laughing at former President Donald Trump behind his back.

Speaking to The Daily Beast, Luntz noted a joke New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) made last week at the Gridiron Club dinner in Washington.

“He’s fucking crazy,” Sununu said of Trump. “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.”

Although the event is known for its roast-level jokes of political figures, Luntz said Sununu’s crack was indicative of something larger.

“I don’t know a single Republican who was surprised by what Sununu said. He said what they were thinking,” 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 significant.”

Luntz also indicated that Trump’s influence was growing weaker within the party.

“Trump isn’t the same man he was a year ago,” Luntz added. “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.”

Read the full report at The Daily Beast.

Luntz’s comments came after a series of rallies in which Trump drew smaller-than-expected crowds. Over the weekend, another GOP figure called it a sign of the former president’s diminished status.

“That’s what you saw there: a very shrinking base,” Republican strategist Susan Del Percio told MSNBC’s Cori Coffin after Trump addressed a sparse crowd in Selma, North Carolina.

Republicans, she said, are “done with Donald Trump and his lies ― except for a small group that we see there.”

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.