Chris Christie, the pugnatious ex-New Jersey governor and ally turned critic of former president Donald Trump, is set to enter the 2024 Republican presidential primary and challenge the man he endorsed after failing to gain traction in the GOP field nearly eight years ago.
According to multiple reports, Mr Christie will announce his candidacy at a town hall to be held on Tuesday at St Anselm College in New Hampshire.
His campaign will be boosted by efforts of a recently-formed Super PAC, Tell It Like It Is, which earlier this week launched a website to laud Mr Christie and advocate for his presence on the primary debate stage in August.
The group says his participation in primary debates “will ensure our party engages in the robust, direct, truth-telling conversation we need to start winning again”.
The former New Jersey chief executive was once considered a top presidential contender before the “Bridgegate” scandal tarnished his star in GOP circles heading into the 2016 primary.
He failed to garner enough support to make a serious play for the nomination and dropped out while throwing his endorsement to Mr Trump.
Since the end of the ex-president’s term, he has become a vocal critic of his former ally and has said Mr Trump is unfit to serve in government.
Though he has been out of electoral politics for nearly a decade, he has hinted recently that he might mount a 2024 campaign with the sole aim of bringing down Mr Trump’s hopes to return to the White House.
Recently he told Politico that Mr Trump “needs to be called out ... by somebody who knows him”.
“Nobody knows Donald Trump better than I do,” he added.
He has also in recent months called the ex-president a “coward” and a”puppet of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin”.
