Since Christie was being sent on fast food runs, one might assume he was simply deemed too pathetic to sit at the table of Donald Trump’s new regime. But Yahoo News reports that the real reason Christie fell out of favor was his tendency to jump in the spotlight next to a man who will never be satisfied with any amount of stage time:
Something was bothering Donald Trump as he made his victory speech after the election. The newly minted president-elect took the stage with at least 40 of his closest aides and allies, but according to a high-level campaign source familiar with Trump’s thinking, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie kept pushing to be near the president-elect and “trying to get in shots.”
“Trump got annoyed,” the source told Yahoo News.
Some have suggested that Christie was ousted because of conflicts with Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, but Yahoo News says that in addition to not knowing his place, Christie was mishandling the transition, and Trump was disturbed by growing scandal over Bridgegate. It seems odd for Trump to be worried by a scandal like Bridgegate when he’s sailed over so many others, but Christie’s lack of work on the transition team could be a real issue. Anonymous staffers described his disappearing act in the weeks leading up to the election:
According to one account, campaign staffers had been so accustomed to Christie’s absence that they were surprised to see him appear at campaign headquarters in Trump Tower — on Election Day.
“Where was Christie? Where was he? He certainly wasn’t planning the transition. We [didn’t] have nearly as much planning as we should have,” one of the staffers said.
Sources near Christie claim that they “did what we planned to do, which was install the pre-election deliverables and hand them off to the team,” meaning they vetted hundreds of job candidates and handed off operational instructions for the team, should Trump win the presidency. Trump was allegedly unhappy with the number of lobbyists on Christie’s list.
Do you think Trump cares more about lobbyists in the White House or sharing camera time?
