Donald Trump fat-shames Chris Christie amid 2024 race

Donald Trump’s presidential campaign responded Tuesday to Chris Christie’s entrance into the crowded 2024 Republican primary by predicting the former New Jersey governor would “waste no time eating DeSantis’ lunch.”

Christie, 60, a former Trump ally, filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission making his run official ahead of a Tuesday evening kickoff event in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Florida Gov. “Ron DeSantis’ campaign is spiraling, and President Trump’s dominance over the Republican primary field has opened a mad rush to seize the mantle for runner-up,” Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

“Ron DeSantis is not ready for this moment, and Chris Christie will waste no time eating DeSantis’ lunch,” she continued, a none-too-subtle allusion to the former governor’s weight problems.

Christie endorsed Trump in 2016 after finishing sixth in the Granite State’s primary and led Trump’s transition team after he defeated Hillary Clinton in the general election.

Christie also advised Trump during the 2020 campaign, but broke with the now-76-year-old over Trump’s claims that the election was decided by fraud.

Christie has cast himself as the only GOP candidate who will directly take on Trump, who has a 31-point lead over DeSantis in national primary polling, according to an average kept by RealClearPolitics.

The Livingston, NJ, native has said that a Trump nomination next year would be “bad for the Republican Party” and that a rematch of the 2020 contest would allow President Biden to win re-election.

Christie left Trenton in 2018 with a 15% approval rating in a Quinnipiac University poll, the lowest rating of any governor in any state the outlet had measured in decades.

His popularity had been in decline since the 2013 “Bridgegate” scandal, in which traffic into Fort Lee was snarled for days after aides ordered lanes on the George Washington Bridge closed — purportedly as political retribution for a local official who refused to endorse Christie’s re-election bid.

Christie denied involvement and was not charged.

The convictions of two aides were later overturned by the US Supreme Court.

The brash Republican said the scandal prevented him from gaining ground against Trump in 2016 and blamed it for being passed over for a vice presidential nod.

He was never publicly offered a cabinet position but said in 2019 that he had “turned down seven offers.”

The frenemies frequently exchanged political critiques early in the 2016 race and since the 2020 election.

Trump, who is himself obese, according to his 2019 physical, has not shied away from attacking Christie’s appearance.

Last September he posted an image of a fat man at a buffet, claiming it was “Chris Christie at a Roy Rogers at 11 PM in the evening trying to console himself.” 

In 2017, meanwhile, Trump allowed other White House dinner guests to order whatever they wanted, but forced Christie to order meatloaf, the ex-gov said.