NEW: President Trump met with Chris Christie on Thursday evening to discuss the chief of staff job https://t.co/23jLozcSeX— Jonathan Swan (@jonathanvswan) December 14, 2018
Here's what the Axios article says:
President Trump met with Chris Christie on Thursday evening and considers him a top contender to replace John Kelly as chief of staff, according to a source familiar with the president’s thinking.
“He’s tough; he’s an attorney; he’s politically-savvy, and one of Trump’s early supporters."
Behind the scenes: Trump has met with a couple of others, but the way he’s discussed Christie to confidants make them think he’s serious. His legal background may come in handy next year.
Between the lines: Christie is used to being a principal, and it’s unclear how he’ll handle playing second fiddle. Also, he is not a friend of the Kushners. (As U.S. attorney for New Jersey, Christie sent Jared’s father to prison.)
Christie was not immediately available for comment.
Read my December 7 post about Chris Christie's job prospects here.
Update: I'll post this with no comment:
Update #2. It's over. Christie has issued the following statement:
"It's an honor to have the President consider me as he looks to choose a new White House chief-of-staff. However, I've told the President that now is not the right time for me or my family to undertake this serious assignment. As a result, I have asked him to no longer keep me in any of his considerations for this post."
Washington Post reporter Josh Dawsey provides some context:
...and here's the promo blurb:
From the outspoken former governor, presidential candidate, and chair of the Trump transition, a no-holds-barred account of Christie's rise to power in a world of bare-knuckle politics, his fifteen-year friendship with Donald Trump, and his frank insights and experiences with the president and his inner circle.
The famously candid two-term governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie was the first major official to endorse Trump for president. Christie quickly became one of Trump's most trusted advisers, tapped with running Trump's transition team and nearly being named vice president. Within days of Trump's surprise victory, however, the president-elect booted Christie from the transition team, citing the Bridgegate scandal.
In Let Me Finish, Christie sets the record straight about his tenure as a corruption-fighting prosecutor and a Republican running a Democratic state, as well as what really went down inside Trump Tower. Christie will take readers into the ego-driven power struggles among the top advisers competing for Trump's mercurial attention, figures like Steve Bannon, Corey Lewandowksi, Reince Priebus, Kellyanne Conway, Paul Manafort, and Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law who never forgot that Christie was the prosecutor who put his wealthy father behind bars.
Packed with news-making revelations and told with an entertaining bluntness that few politicians can match, Christie's memoir will be an essential lesson in Trump-era realpolitik.
Update: I'll post this with no comment:
BREAKING: CHRIS CHRISTIE is leading candidate for Trump’s next chief of staff.— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) December 14, 2018
Trump met with Christie last night upstairs in the residence after remarks at one of the White House Christmas parties.
I’m told the mtg went very well.
(BUT as always, Trump could change mind.)
Update #2. It's over. Christie has issued the following statement:
"It's an honor to have the President consider me as he looks to choose a new White House chief-of-staff. However, I've told the President that now is not the right time for me or my family to undertake this serious assignment. As a result, I have asked him to no longer keep me in any of his considerations for this post."
Washington Post reporter Josh Dawsey provides some context:
And one more thing. Apparently Chris Christie has a memoir coming out early next year:People close to Christie resent that Trump had toyed with him -- removal from transition team, not picking him as AG. This time, POTUS was quite interested in Christie as chief of staff, per several White House advisers, and saw him as a front-runner. And Christie said no.— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) December 14, 2018
Chris Christie settling some scores? Heck yes I'll read that. The cover art is out on Amazon:Christie's lucrative memoir, which is expected to settle some scores, will come out in January. It's finished. Being chief of staff would have complicated that...— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) December 14, 2018
...and here's the promo blurb:
From the outspoken former governor, presidential candidate, and chair of the Trump transition, a no-holds-barred account of Christie's rise to power in a world of bare-knuckle politics, his fifteen-year friendship with Donald Trump, and his frank insights and experiences with the president and his inner circle.
The famously candid two-term governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie was the first major official to endorse Trump for president. Christie quickly became one of Trump's most trusted advisers, tapped with running Trump's transition team and nearly being named vice president. Within days of Trump's surprise victory, however, the president-elect booted Christie from the transition team, citing the Bridgegate scandal.
In Let Me Finish, Christie sets the record straight about his tenure as a corruption-fighting prosecutor and a Republican running a Democratic state, as well as what really went down inside Trump Tower. Christie will take readers into the ego-driven power struggles among the top advisers competing for Trump's mercurial attention, figures like Steve Bannon, Corey Lewandowksi, Reince Priebus, Kellyanne Conway, Paul Manafort, and Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law who never forgot that Christie was the prosecutor who put his wealthy father behind bars.
Packed with news-making revelations and told with an entertaining bluntness that few politicians can match, Christie's memoir will be an essential lesson in Trump-era realpolitik.
Click here to pre-order at Amazon.
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