Donald Trump has been hitting Chris Christie with a barrage of fat jokes since he announced his presidential campaign, culminating with a doctored video of the former New Jersey governor speaking to supporters from an all-you-can-eat buffet.
Christie announced that he would seek the 2024 Republican nomination for president of the United States earlier this week. In doing so, he explained his decision as a matter of choosing between whether or not America would be small or big.
“And I wondered what our choice was going to be,” he said. “Were we going to be small or were we going to be big?”
Trump pounced on the comments in his critique of the speech.
“How many times did Chris Christie use the word SMALL? Does he have a psychological problem with SIZE?” asked Trump. “Actually, his speech was SMALL, and not very good. It rambled all over the place, and nobody had a clue of what he was talking about.”
He then posted the doctored video.
RELATED: Trump Gut Punches ‘Sloppy’ Chris Christie After He Claims Former President Can’t Beat Biden
Primaries Start Cooking As Trump Slaps Christie With A Buffet Video
The Chris Christie all-you-can-eat buffet video isn’t the only time Trump has slyly made mention of his opponent’s weight.
After the announcement, a Trump campaign spokesperson took a jab at both Christie and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, stating the former would beat the latter.
“Ron DeSantis is not ready for this moment, and Chris Christie will waste no time eating DeSantis’ lunch,” the statement reads.
Trump responds to Chris Christie 2024:
“Chris Christie will waste not time eating DeSantis’ lunch.” pic.twitter.com/hWbTrAQTh5
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) June 6, 2023
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Trump took another shot at Christie’s weight last week when sharing a post from Roger Stone suggesting the latest GOP candidate simply “needs to run,” not run for President.
Upon hearing the news, Trump political consultant Roger Stone took to twitter to attack Chris Christie’s weight.
“@ChrisChristie needs to run. Not for President. He just needs to run,” Stone wrote in his tweet.https://t.co/N7b4ulQX2d
— Cliff W (@CliffW08950229) June 2, 2023
I’d just like to say that we would never engage in such childish tactics involving Chris Christie. You’ll never see a “whale” pun on these pages.
There won’t be any mention of the former Governor as “the world’s first unsuccessful lap band surgery recipient” or describing him as pushing away from Trump “in a manner he’d never push away at the buffet table.”
We simply have a higher level of decorum here at The Political Insider.
Chris Christie Makes a Whale of a Claim: Trump is ‘Too Afraid’ to Debate https://t.co/2MR8JS9tN7 via @TPInsidr
— Rusty 🎙️ (@rustyweiss74) May 5, 2023
Christie Takes Off the Oven Mitts And Fights Back
Chris Christie responded to the all-you-can-eat buffet joke by calling Trump childish and admitting to struggling with his weight for decades.
“Breaking news… I have struggled with my weight for 20 years,” Christie tweeted.
Mmm … delicious. Oh weight, he said “breaking news” not “bacon news.”
“What I haven’t struggled with is my character. I’ll put that up against Donald Trump’s any day,” Christie added. “If that’s the best he’s got, then he’s lost his fastball.”
He went on to describe Trump as a “spoiled baby” and to mock him for his “advanced age.”
Apparently fat-shaming jokes are taboo, but ageism is perfectly fine.
When a spoiled baby misbehaves, you send them to their room, not the White House. At his advanced age, it is time to give up hope that Trump will ever grow up. We need a leader, not a child. pic.twitter.com/IayYMRSujI
— Chris Christie (@GovChristie) June 7, 2023
Of course, Christie has most assuredly struggled with his character in the past.
He was consistently rumored to have held unwritten truces between he and then-New York Governor Andrew Cuomo for their mutual political benefit because he didn’t want Cuomo talking about his Bridgegate scandal.
And as chairman of the Republican Governors Association in 2014, he actively sabotaged a GOP candidate for governor in New York by refusing to back their campaign with funding.
The Trump campaign hasn’t just focused on weight jokes, labeling Christie “a dishonest career politician who will do or say anything to enrich and empower himself.”
The campaign noted that Christie proudly announced how he donated to Planned Parenthood, once described Americans’ constitutionally-protected right to firearms as “dangerous” and “radical,” and signed legislation that lowered college tuition for illegal immigrants.
