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Former President Donald Trump shared a crass post on his Truth Social account Friday poking fun at the weight of his one-time close friend and political ally former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R).
“Chris Christie at a Roy Rogers at 11 PM in the evening trying to console himself,” Trump wrote on his struggling Twitter knock-off above a photo of Christie at what appears to be a buffet.
While it’s unclear what exactly prompted Trump’s childish attack on his supposed friend of over 20 years, Christie has recently been critical of Trump’s taking of classified materials from the White House to his private residence.
On ABC News’ This Week on Sunday, Christie defended the Department of Justice and the FBI for executing a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago, arguing law enforcement “had no choice” but to seize the documents from an uncooperative Trump.
“It’s not only the nature of the documents. We now have a good idea of the timeline. This has been 16 months that the Department of Justice has been saying please, asking nicely, negotiating with his attorneys, taking up partial production, seeing a non-response to a subpoena,” Christie said.
“They had no choice, in my view, but to go in and take them, because of the nature of the documents,” he argued.
“He had that in the top drawer at Mar-a-Lago in his desk,” Christie said of Trump’s handling of the top-secret documents. “That’s a problem. I don’t think he’ll be prosecuted for it, but we ought to get those documents back.”
Trump and Christie have traded barbs before when they ran against each other for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016.
“He shouldn’t be talking like that, I’m surprised that he would be talking like that,” Trump said in response to Christie saying Trump’s candidacy would burn out. “I know him and I guess he used to be a friend until this all happened.”
The two made up after Christie dropped out of the race and endorsed Trump. Christie briefly led Trump’s transition team in 2016, but was not given a role in the new presidential administration.
Christie, who is believed to be eyeing a 2024 presidential bid, told Axios in November 2021 he had not spoke with Trump since Jan. 6 when he frantically tried to call Trump to urge him to stop the attack on the U.S. Capitol – calls he claims Trump ignored.
Mike Allen wrote at the time, “The two were once so close Christie called him “Donald,” even when he was in the White House. Right after Christie appeared on a Sunday show, the president would call him in the car and critique his appearance.”
“I was desperate to try to get in touch with him,” Christie told Allen about Jan. 6, “because I felt like what was happening was awful and was going to be a stain on his presidency, and I wanted him to be the guy to stand up and stop it. But he didn’t take the call, and so I said what I would have said to him privately on the air on ABC.”