Donald Trump acts like a “coward” and “Putin’s puppet” when he refuses to support Ukraine in the war against Russia. The former president “is afraid”, moreover, “to face serious candidates on stage”. The reason is that he “doesn’t have solid answers to the country’s problems” and “all he wants is to go back and redo the 2020 elections because his feelings are hurt. He’s like a child”…
All this and more said the former Republican governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, before leaking, this Thursday, that on the 6th he will launch his bid for the presidential elections of 2024. His will be the eighth alternative candidacy to that of ex-president ultra in the republican primaries, and this in the absence of other likely ones who in the end can put the number of aspirants around a dozen: a frequent competition which, according to analysts, can help the leader and disperse the vote of the his opponents in these primaries.
But, while the rest of these alternative candidates tend to attack the leader rather in a No Trump key, and often with overacting in form but moderation in substance, what was once a close collaborator of the former president is today one of the fiercest internal adversaries. He is a real anti-Trump.
As The Hill newspaper commented the day before yesterday when the new candidacy was announced, the relationship between the former governor of New Jersey and the former president “has had more twists and turns than a soap opera”. Christie already competed with the tycoon in the 2016 primaries to then – once defeated by him – become part of his transition team to the presidency before the elections. But the collaboration was short. When the election was a month away and the video was published in which Trump said that “if you’re a star” you can grab women by the genitals, Christie described the comment as “indefensible”. And this, according to former adviser Steve Bannon, cost him any option for a position in the presidential cabinet.
However, the former New Jersey federal prosecutor maintained a cordial relationship with the president, and in 2020 he helped him prepare for the debates with Joe Biden. But everything went haywire between them when Trump lost and he became obstinate in denouncing false electoral fraud. Christie didn’t buy the complaint, and never would.
The attacks of one and the answers of the other increased in tone. After November’s midterms, in which Republicans did far worse than expected when they narrowly won the House but failed to capture the Senate, Christie attributed the relative defeat to Trump for his insistence on supporting candidates with little chance. The former president had acted, said his ex-collaborator, only in favor of himself. And he added: “When he won in 2016, he ensured that we would get tired of winning elections thanks to him. But look: in 2018 we lost the Chamber; in 2020, the Senate and the White House. And now we are far below what history dictates. I’m sick of losing.”
Christie, 60, was particularly hard on Trump when he, in the wake of his civil conviction for sexual assault and defamation of writer Jean Carroll, said he did not know her and that it was all the result of a false accusation with political motivations. “It’s ridiculous. The stories keep piling up,” he said in veiled allusion to Trump’s impeachment for bribing porn actress Stormy Daniels. “This type of behavior is unacceptable for someone to call a leader,” he let go.
Much earlier, at the end of 2021, the ex-governor had blamed Trump for entrusting him with covid. According to Christie, who in the fall of 2020 had to enter the hospital due to the infection, the president called him by phone when they were both hospitalized… but not to inquire about his condition but to ensure I know that I would not hold him responsible for the contagion.
Trump, for his part, scorned every attempt by Christie to prosper while he was president. And then he would not stop attacking or counter-attacking him on his network, Truth Social; lately to call him fat, although by playing messages from third parties, or to emphasize his slim chances in the electoral race.
And it is true, according to the polls, that Christie has, in quantitative terms, less chance of putting up a real fight against Trump than Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, or former Vice President Mike Pence, who could also launch his nomination next week. But, with all this burden of resentment accumulated in the poisoned relationship with the former president, the lawyer and politician from New Jersey seems the most motivated of his rivals to face him head on, without funnels or excessive simulation; that is, without as much theater as that which characterizes the politics of the United States. Or all politics but especially that of showbiz paradise and non-fiction drama.
