Chris Christie Files Bid to Get Humiliated by Trump Again

Chris Christie is running for president. The former New Jersey governor on Tuesday filed paperwork to run with the Federal Election Commission, despite every external factor indicating he has absolutely no chance to even sniff the Republican nomination.

Christie has charted a familiar, humiliating path through Republican politics since his failed White House run in 2016. He quickly endorsed Trump after dropping out of the race, despite having bashed the future president as not being fit for office while campaigning. “I look forward to working with him,” Christie said of the then-frontrunner. Christie went on to lead Trump’s transition team before Trump ultimately booted him from the role shortly after the election. He was also reportedly angling for Trump to tap him as attorney general, but that never happened.

Christie continued to support Trump and backed his reelection bid in 2020, but ahead of the 2024 he’s refashioned himself as a vocal critic of the former president. He finally soured on Trump, he claims, when Trump tried to overturn President Biden’s win. “You know what Donald Trump said a couple of weeks ago?” Christie told a New Hampshire crowd in March. “‘I am your retribution.’ Guess what, everybody? No thanks.”

Christie continued to argue that he’ll be able to wipe the floor with Trump on a debate stage, referencing how he made a fool of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) during the 2016 primary. “You better have somebody on that stage who can do to him what I did to Marco, because that’s the only thing that’s gonna defeat Donald Trump,” he added in New Hampshire. Christie seems pretty confident he’ll have a chance to take it to Trump despite speculation that Trump may skip out on the debates altogether. “His ego will not permit him not to be on that stage,” he told ABC News last month.

Christie might have trouble even qualifying for the debate stage. The Republican National Committee requires candidates to receive at least two-percent support in at least three national polls to qualify, and the former New Jersey governor isn’t very popular. He’s polling around one percent in multiple surveys, with over 70 percent of conservatives in his home state saying they wouldn’t consider voting for him.

Christie’s prospects would be slim even if he were able to wow America from the debate stage. Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis are widely seen as the only two viable contenders, polling well above the rest of the field. Christie would also have to leapfrog Mike Pence, whom Trump picked to lead his presidential transition after ditching Christie in 2016. Pence is expected to announce his candidacy on Wednesday.