Over the holiday weekend, with little else to talk about, centrist pundits and never-Trumpers decided it was time to throw former Gov. Chris Christie, R-N.J., an old-fashioned media hype party. Sure, they caveat themselves with an acknowledgment that this former Donald Trump ally has no chance of actually winning the 2024 Republican primary. He's behind former Vice President Mike Pence in polls, for heaven's sake. Still, the chattering class convinced themselves Christie could be the metaphorical Trump-killer they've been dreaming of. Unlike every other candidate in the race, Christie calls Trump out, directly and by name, and doesn't mince words.
"Loser. Loser. Loser," Christie said during his CNN town hall when asked about Trump. He also said Trump is "completely self-centered, completely self-consumed, and doesn't give a damn about the American people."
Mocking other Republicans for refusing to confront Trump directly, 2024 GOP presidential candidate Chris Christie slams his electoral record:
— The Recount (@therecount) June 13, 2023
“Loser. Loser. Loser. Now we’re going, 'It’ll be different this time.' Why? Why will it be different this time?” pic.twitter.com/5BZBsg10ZB
Christie has also attacked Trump for relentlessly grifting his followers, called out Trump's obvious guilt in the classified documents case, and, in a personal favorite, retorted "like he's some Adonis?" when Trump called Christie fat. At Republican events, Christie gets booed for his emperor-is-naked routine, but clearly the pleasure of trolling Trump outweighs paying mind to the opinions of Trump fans.
For this, the hosannas for Christie have been raining down from the perches of the most comfortable members of the political punditry. They're fixated on fantasy where Christie calls Trump out during a debate, breaking the reverie of the Trump faithful and deprogramming them on the spot. Over the weekend, Maureen Dowd (natch) of the New York Times evoked this dream in her glowing profile of Christie. She quotes Christie praising himself: "For people like me, who've grown up here and lived my whole life in this atmosphere, he's just one of a lot of people I know who have that personality. He knows I know what his game is."
Matt Lewis of the Daily Beast is fawning, writing that Christie is "hitting it out of the park" and that he's "not only tough, but also funny and entertaining." Christie, these commentators, may not win. But he may be the key to setting the GOP back on the path to "normal."
As Rich Logis wrote for Salon last month, the press is "preoccupied with saving the Republican Party," even though "no Republican primary voters anywhere in the country are reading or writing editorials that wonder about who will save their party." The longing for a GOP they could pretend is rational will not die, nor will the media belief that getting rid of Trump means curing the MAGA contagion.
MAGA may stand for "make America great again," but in reality, it's a movement focused solely on inflicting pain.
GOP voters, when asked why they love Trump, usually spout some pablum about how he's "tough" and "he fights for us." If you take these claims at face value, it does feel like Christie could have some firepower against Trump. He's witty and genuinely hard to rattle. If he does make it on a debate stage with Trump, he could very well land some verbal punches. He may even draw a bratty tantrum out of Trump. Christie's points about how Trump is a self-centered prick who would sell his followers out in a heartbeat should, in theory, be especially unnerving for people who want to believe Trump is their champion.
But all that assumes that GOP voters are sincere people sharing good faith opinions with reporters who ask them why they love Trump. This is not just a shaky assumption, but a laughable one. What MAGA voters love about Trump is not that he's "tough," which would be laughable since he's actually a big old crybaby. And even if they did at once think he would fight for them, that time passed when he abandoned the over 1,000 people who were arrested for rioting on his behalf on January 6.
MAGA doesn't really care about Trump as a "fighter" or as "tough." Trump appeals to the increasingly nihilistic bent of the GOP voting base for one reason only: They view him as a punishment to inflict on the rest of the country. MAGA may stand for "make America great again," but in reality, it's a movement focused solely on inflicting pain. At this point, most of them realize they're never going to get the rest of the country to agree with their racism, their hostility to reproductive rights, and their unhinged loathing of LGBTQ people. They definitely know they aren't going to win any political debates on the merits, as facts and evidence have disproved their views on everything from social spending to climate change. All they can do is lash out angrily at everyone else for being so very right when they are so very wrong.
Remember, MAGA is a movement so nihilistic that encouraged its adherents to reject vaccination. Deliberately risking their lives just to prolong the pandemic is next-level hatefulness toward their fellow Americans. That's what the MAGA movement is about.
Trump gets this, which is why he frequently calls himself "your retribution" during his speeches. That's why his indictments and other reminders of his criminality only increase GOP support. The worse he gets, the more they love him. He's the post-pandemic disease they are using to destroy a country they've come to hate. That's why MAGA voters are unmoved when reminded Trump will struggle in a general election. It's really not about winning elections for them, either. It's about making the process of having an election as miserable as possible.
Christie's words about how Trump "doesn't give a damn about the American people" don't matter to the MAGA base. They know he's speaking the truth about Trump's views. It just happens that GOP voters also do not give a damn about the American people. Most Americans, after all, aren't MAGA. Most Americans support abortion rights, racial diversity, LGBTQ equality, and oppose book banning. Most Americans are repulsed by fascism and want to preserve democracy. Trump's followers see other Americans as an enemy to be vanquished. Christie is right that Trump is a cancer on our body politic. What he misses is that is exactly what Trump voters love about their leader.
