In the early stages of the 2016 election, former New Jersey governor Chris Christie described Donald Trump as a “carnival barker.” Months later, Christie ended his presidential run by becoming one of the first establishment leaders to throw in with Trump, endorsing him despite allegedly saying he never would, even as the eventual Republican nominee ridiculed his weight and paraded him around like a trophy. Christie remained more or less by Trump’s side throughout his presidency, at times speaking out against his actions, but never outright severing the tie.
Now, more than five and a half years after boarding the Trump train, Christie is again making a calculated move to maintain his political relevance. During an Axios on HBO interview that will air this weekend, he openly mocked Trump’s 2020 defeat, all but daring the former president to retaliate. “When I ran for reelection in 2013, I got 60% of the vote. When he ran for reelection, he lost to Joe Biden,” Christie said. “I’m happy to have that comparison stand up, because that’s the one that really matters.” He added that he’s not afraid to tangle with Trump, in what Axios called the first “hand-to-hand combat” of the 2024 Republican presidential primary. “I’ve never walked away from an argument, no matter who stood on the other side,” Christie insisted.
Christie will continue the press circuit next Monday with an appearance on CNN anchor Dana Bash’s new show—an episode the network is billing as a look at “one of America’s most well-known Republicans, a longtime friend and high-profile supporter of former president Donald Trump turned harsh critic of Trump’s ‘big lie.’”
Tensions between Christie and the ex-president began to ratchet up last weekend, when the former drew headlines for condemning Trump’s “stolen election” claims at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual meeting in Las Vegas. Trump, of course, responded in kind. “Christie…was just absolutely massacred by his statements that Republicans have to move on from the past, meaning the 2020 election fraud,” Trump said in a statement. “Everybody remembers that Chris left New Jersey with a less than 9% approval rating—a record low, and they didn’t want to hear this from him!”
It’s hard to pin down the origins of Christie’s slow inch away from Trump, but his interview with The New Yorker published three days after the Capitol riot can be considered a signpost. In it, Christie argued that his 2016 endorsement was calculated and pragmatic, rather than motivated by any sincere conviction. “I was absolutely convinced that there was no one left on that stage in the Republican primary who was going to beat Donald Trump. He was going to be our nominee,” Christie said. “And secondly, I was absolutely committed to Hillary Clinton not being president of the United States. So, given my relationship with Donald Trump over all those years, I felt like if I got in early and helped him I could have influence in making him a better candidate and, ultimately, a better president. And I think I did both those things.”
All this posturing has a purpose, of course: to feed Christie’s presidential ambitions. The former governor is soon publishing a book titled Republican Rescue: Saving the Party From Truth Deniers, Conspiracy Theorists, and the Dangerous Policies of Joe Biden, and he spoke at the Reagan Presidential Library in September to call on Republicans to move past “wishful thinking and self-delusion,” in a reference to conservatives who refuse to accept the results of last year’s election. Christie added that the GOP has to “stop the wallowing in the past. We need to renounce the conspiracy theorists and truth deniers—the ones who know better and the ones who are just plain nuts.”
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