Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie confirms he's mulling a 2024 presidential bid and won't 'defer' to Trump

• Chris Christie confirmed on the "Ruthless" podcast that he's weighing a 2024 presidential run.
• The former New Jersey governor said he doesn't plan to "defer" to Trump when making a decision.
• Axios first reported in late April that Christie was considering a 2024 bid.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie confirmed this week that he's toying with the idea of running for president in the 2024 Republican primary, adding that his decision will not depend on former President Donald Trump's next move.

"I'm also not going to be one of these people who's going to say, 'Well, I'll wait to see what President Trump's going to do.' I'm not going to defer to anyone if I decide that's what I want to do and that I think I'm the best option for the party and for the country," Christie told the "Ruthless" podcast in an interview that aired on Monday. "I think if you say you're deferring to someone, that's a sign of both weakness and indecision, and we've already got that in the White House."

Christie's comments could be seen as a dig at Nikki Haley, a former South Carolina governor and US Ambassador to the UN, who said she won't run for president if Trump does and will "have to talk to him about it."

The former federal prosecutor said he plans to wait until after the 2022 midterms to make a final call.

"For me, what I want to do is to try to lead the party in a productive and smart way, for us to continue to argue for populist-type policies but not to be reckless with our policies, not to be reckless with our language," Christie said on the podcast, noting that some of the "recklessness of the past four years" has cost the GOP suburban voters.

Axios first reported in late April that Christie was considering a 2024 bid for the Republican nomination.

Despite his admittedly complicated with Trump, Christie told Fox News in early May that he would give the Trump presidency as a whole an A grade.

"The fact of the matter is that there were some things that happened specifically at the end of the presidency that I think had some things that clouded his accomplishments, and that's why we as a party need to emphasize the issues you just talked about," Christie told Fox News' Sean Hannity.

Christie sat out the 2012 presidential primary and unsuccessfully ran in the crowded 2016 GOP primary field, losing to Trump, who edged out Christie as the tri-state area candidate with a tough-as-nails reputation.

Read more: Donald Trump donated his federal salary, but he's taken $65,600 in pension payments since January 20

Sources close to Christie told Axios that the former governor believes he could carve out a unique lane as the sole candidate who has both held statewide executive office and previously run for president, an edge he thinks he could hold over rising star Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida.

DeSantis, who ran for governor in 2018 as an explicitly pro-Trump candidate, has attracted a flurry of positive news coverage for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and is generating buzz among GOP donors, who reportedly see him as a "nicer" version of Trump.

Trump told Fox News in April that he is "very seriously" considering another presidential bid in 2024. But, if he decides against that, other possible frontrunners besides DeSantis and Haley include former Vice President Mike Pence, Sens. Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, Rick Scott, and Tom Cotton, Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota, and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Still, the makeup of the GOP base has seen a marked change since Christie was in office. There are now fewer white, college-educated, suburban voters who elected Christie to the governorship in New Jersey. In their place are more non-college-educated voters and, in 2020, more Latino voters. So Christie could struggle to gain traction in a primary field dominated by Trump loyalists.

During Trump's presidency, Christie served as an on-air contributor at ABC News, and was most critical of Trumpworld towards the end of the Trump administration.

Christie tested positive for COVID-19 after assisting the Trump campaign with debate prep in fall 2020. His bout with the disease landed him in the hospital and led him to openly plead with Americans to take the pandemic seriously and wear masks, at odds with the Trump White House's consistent downplaying of the pandemic.

The former governor also spoke out against the Trump campaign's efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the courts, calling a last-ditch lawsuit in the Supreme Court seeking to overturn four states' election results "an absurdity" and Trump's legal team "a national embarrassment."

This story has been updated.