Chris Christie lashes out at Trump family’s ‘breathtaking grift’

Mr Christie, who faces long odds in the competition for the GOP nomination, is expected to formally kick off his campaign during a town hall in New Hampshire.

Mr Christie plans to focus on the Granite State, an early primary state that he hopes will help give his campaign momentum. Former President Donald Trump, meanwhile, leads the increasingly crowded GOP field. But Mr Christie will look to position himself as a more moderate alternative to Mr Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who recently launched his own GOP presidential bid.

Calling Mr Trump a “self-serving mirror hog” during his 2024 campaign launch, Mr Christie went on to say that “the grift from this family is breathtaking”.

“Jared Kushner and Ivanka Kushner walk out of the White House and months later get $2bn from the Saudis. $2bn from the Saudis,” he added. “You think it’s because he’s some kind of investing genius? Or do you think it’s because he was sitting next to the President of the United States for four years doing favours for the Saudis?”

The investment fund of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman entered a deal with Mr Kushner’s Affinity Partners six months after Mr Kushner left the White House, prompting ethics concerns, according to The New York Times.

“That’s your money,” Mr Christie told the audience in New Hampshire. “That’s your money he stole and gave it to his family. You know what that makes us? A banana republic. That’s what it makes us.”

Mr Trump’s meme-sharing comes after Mr Christie went after Ms Trump and Mr Kushner.

The Kushner family has been in a decades-long feud with Mr Christie. When he was serving as a US Attorney in New Jersey in 2004, Mr Christie prosecuted Mr Kushner’s father, Charles Kushner, who ended up pleading guilty to “16 counts of assisting in the filing of false tax returns, one count of retaliating against a cooperating witness and one count of making false statements to the Federal Election Commission,” according to a statement from the Department of Justice.

Mr Trump pardoned Charles Kushner in 2020.

Mr Christie became the first establishment Republican to endorse Mr Trump after dropping out of the 2016 primary. He was for a time in charge of Mr Trump’s presidential transition and was also considered for roles such as vice president and attorney general, ideas which were vetoed by Mr Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

After being an ally of the president and supporting him in both the 2016 and 2020 elections, Mr Christie has now become one of his harshest critics. Last year, Mr Trump posted an image of Mr Christie at a buffet with the caption “Chris Christie at a Roy Rogers at 11 PM in the evening trying to console himself”.

The former president shared a video created by Twitter users @NautPoso and @drefanzor which was crudely edited to make it appear as if the ex-New Jersey governor was starting his campaign at an all-you-can-buffet holding a plate of food.

Mr Trump shared the video not long after taking another shot at Mr Christie’s weight.

“How many times did Chris Christie use the word SMALL? Does he have a psychological problem with SIZE? Actually, his speech was SMALL, and not very good,” Mr Trump wrote on Truth Social. “It rambled all over the place, and nobody had a clue of what he was talking about. Hard to watch, boring, but that’s what you get from a failed Governor (New Jersey) who left office with a 7% approval rating and then got run out of New Hampshire. This time, it won’t be any different!”

Mr Christe has faced a litany of jokes about his weight in the last few weeks from outlets such as Newsmax and Fox News. Fox host Greg Gutfeld took part in the mockery, as did network anchor John Roberts who said the former governor “could drink a lot the milkshake if he wanted to” because of his “physical stature”.

The battle for the Republican nomination just got a whole lot messier.

That was the defining message of former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s campaign launch on Tuesday: Get ready for blood.

Calling out his opponents by name, deconstructing their campaign slogans and clever quips — Chris Christie was in prime form on Tuesday evening at St Anselm College in New Hampshire, where he addressed a small crowd of voters in a town hall-style event and put his sights clear on his top rival, Donald Trump.

Mr Christie spoke at length before taking questions from his guests. In his remarks throughout the event, he remained plain-spoken and sharp-tongued while denouncing the four years of his rival’s presidency as an utter failure and little more than an opportunity for “breathtaking” levels of corruption and “grift” carried out by the Trump family.

Chris Christie is officially running for president. But out of office for several years, and having suffered a humiliating defeat in the 2016 primary, The Independent’s Eric Garcia asks: Is his time of relevance over?

Mr Christie explained on Tuesday what he said was the true meaning behind Donald Trump’s boasting of his supposed ability to end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours, were the latter to be elected president again.

Speaking to voters, he argued: “Let me tell you how he would. He’d give Ukraine to Russia.”

As you might have expected, Donald Trump was hardly likely to let Christie’s attacks on his “grifter” family unchallenged.

Here’s what he had to say in his latest feverish post to Truth Social:

“How many times did Chris Christie use the word SMALL? Does he have a psychological problem with SIZE? Actually, his speech was SMALL, and not very good. It rambled all over the place, and nobody had a clue of what he was talking about. Hard to watch, boring, but that’s what you get from a failed Governor (New Jersey) who left office with a 7% approval rating and then got run out of New Hampshire. This time, it won’t be any different!”

Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie had at least a few fans on social media Tuesday evening as he laid into Donald Trump: Democrats.

“I don’t always retweet GOP Presidential candidates. But when I do, I prefer retweeting Chris Christie,” wrote Rep Ted Lieu, a California lawmaker.

Medhi Hasan, a left-leaning commentator on MSNBC, added: “Christie’s a hypocrite on Trump but, I won’t lie, I’m still enjoying this. Not sure his audience is, but I am.”