Chris Christie blasts Trump's 2024 presidential campaign as a 'vanity exercise' meant to 'try to make himself feel better'

• Ex-NJ Gov. Chris Christie on Sunday called former President Trump's 2024 bid a "vanity exercise."
• Christie argued on WABC radio that a Biden-Trump matchup would be "bad" for the GOP.

Former Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey on Sunday once again blasted former President Donald Trump's presidential campaign, calling the ex-president's 2024 effort a "vanity exercise to try to make himself feel better."

Christie, a onetime Trump ally who is mulling a presidential campaign of his own, critiqued the state of the race for the White House during a WABC radio interview with New York businessman John Catsimatidis — during which he railed against the prospect of a 2020 rematch between President Joe Biden and the former president.

"I'm very concerned that what we're heading towards is a Trump-Biden rematch," Christie said. "A Trump-Biden rematch is bad for the Republican Party."

"Donald Trump has done nothing but lose since he won the election in 2016," he continued. "We lost the House in 2018. The Senate and the White House in 2020. We underperformed in 2022 and lost more governorships and another Senate seat. Donald Trump cannot win."

Christie in recent weeks has visited New Hampshire, a key early-voting primary state, to test a potential campaign while also making a case as to why Trump should not be the GOP standard-bearer once again next year.

"He's on a vanity exercise to try to make himself feel better. That's not going to make the country any better," Christie said. "That's why I'm considering it because I'm concerned that the people that are in the race so far are unwilling to take him on directly."

"The only way to beat the front runner is to take the front runner on directly," he added.

The declared major GOP contenders in the race besides Trump so far include former Govs. Nikki Haley of South Carolina and Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, and conservative radio host and 2021 California gubernatorial candidate Larry Elder.

Christie led the Garden State from 2010 to 2018 and ran for president in 2016. He suspended his presidential campaign, however, after disappointing finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire.

The former governor has indicated that he would make a decision about a 2024 campaign sometime this month.