Chris Christie, the former governor of New Jersey, announced his candidacy for president for the second time on Tuesday.
The Trump campaign reacted to the announcement of former New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie’s presidential candidacy today with a statement warning that it would be terrible news for Christie’s current top competitor, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
“Ron DeSantis’ campaign is spiraling, and President Trump’s dominance over the Republican primary field has opened the door for a mad rush to seize the mantle for runner-up,” Karoline Leavitt, spokeswoman for the PAC Make America Great Again Inc., said in a statement on Tuesday.
“Ron DeSantis is unprepared for this moment, and Chris Christie will devour DeSantis’ lunch.”
The DeSantis team referred Fox News Digital to a comment DeSantis made last week in an interview with KCCI-TV in Iowa, saying, “Regardless of who decides to run or not run, for us, it’s really just background noise.”
“We believe we have a winning message.” We feel we have a strategy in place to do this, and it’s really just a matter of execution for us.”
Christie, who was governor of New Jersey from 2010 to 2018, campaigned for president in 2016 but lost the Republican primary to Trump.
“I don’t know why people are doing it,” Trump said at a town hall last week with Sean Hannity regarding new candidates entering the race despite his poll lead. “They’ve reached 1%.” Some are at 0.”
In Republican primary surveys, Trump presently has a substantial lead over DeSantis, who is in second place. DeSantis launched his candidacy last month, far after Trump, and has already been campaigning in states such as Iowa and New Hampshire.
