As we previously reported, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has for a couple of years now been putting out feelers for a possible GOP presidential run, with reports from late May confirming he had decided to throw his hat into the ring.

On Tuesday, Christie is indeed set to make it “official” with a 6:30 pm Eastern time town hall at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire, an event designed to portray Christie as the supposedly hard-hitting tough guy who will forcefully engage the frontrunner in the race, former President Donald Trump.

Christie’s advisers recently admitted that his campaign will be more of a national race than anything else, which RedState Senior Editor Joe Cunningham correctly pointed out would be problematic for Christie seeing that he has no real pathway among core Republican voters in the states that matter most in a primary campaign.

That includes his home state of New Jersey, where “kamikaze” Christie ended his gubernatorial reign with a 15 percent approval rating:

My latest for The Messenger. Chris Christie launches his kamikaze campaign tonight. In a related story, he left office here in Jersey at 15 percent approval: https://t.co/ZpE62ufl7s

— Joe Concha (@JoeConchaTV) June 6, 2023

Further, national polling shows Christie, who has been highly visible on the Sunday talking head shows for years now, actually trailing Liz Cheney, who is deeply unpopular with the Republican base on a national level (and who has not said one way or the other if she’s going to run for president):

Pence, Christie enter the 2024 race with meager support: Former Vice President Mike Pence, who filed paperwork to seek the GOP’s 2024 nod, is backed by 7% of potential Republican primary voters, similar to his standing since tracking began in December. Just 1% of the party’s prospective electorate supports former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie in advance of his campaign launch.

Liz Cheney polling higher than Chris Christie for 2024 pic.twitter.com/arlxX0t05c

— Charlie Spiering (@charliespiering) June 6, 2023

That is just flat out humiliating, especially considering the time Christie has already put in on the talk show circuit and traveling to different parts of the country to do a voter “temperature check” and test the waters.

As to what Christie will bring to the race? Nothing of value, really, as my RS colleague Bonchie explained:

So I’ll ask again, who is pining for Chris Christie? What’s his justification given the current state of the race?

The answer to that latter question is that he doesn’t have one. All Christie is going to do is cement his irrelevance, and in the end, he won’t add anything of value to the field.

One other thing that can be said about Christie is, just like the poll above hinted, Christie is a man who is very familiar with humiliation. While his allies would say, “Yeah, he humiliated Marco Rubio in 2016,” what they leave out is that in the end Christie – widely viewed at the time as Trump’s “body man,” was soon tossed aside by the man he helped most during that infamous debate exchange – Donald Trump:

As a reward [for endorsing him], Trump appointed him as head of his White House transition committee.

It would be a job Christie would hold for exactly three days. He was demoted by Steve Bannon, who served as CEO of the Trump campaign and would go on to work in the administration as chief strategist for seven months. Reports at the time said Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, had issues with Christie, so off Christie went. He also was dismissed when reportedly lobbying for the attorney general role that was eventually occupied by former Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.).

Since that time, Christie has made it his mission to be one of Trump’s staunchest critics. If Rubio was the target in 2016, rest assured that Trump will be the bullseye in 2023.

[…]

It seems to be more about Christie seeking revenge for Trump firing him about five minutes into leading his transition team. Or perhaps it was about not being chosen as a running mate. Or maybe this is about the attorney general job for which he was passed over.

Interestingly, the Trump campaign is already fluffing Christie’s ego and trying to take him off their scent, hinting between the lines that they believe Christie will take out DeSantis on behalf of Trump:

Chris Christie will waste no time eating DeSantis' lunch. pic.twitter.com/K9uo7YLpu2

— Karoline Leavitt (@kleavittnh) June 6, 2023

Whatever the case may be, it’s hard to envision a scenario where Christie gets the best of Trump should the mudslinging between the two get particularly nasty. At best, Christie maybe could blunt some of Trump’s momentum but that would come at a cost to Christie’s own campaign, because it will leave the door wide open to other candidates asking out loud “Well, if you knew this about Trump then why all the ring-kissing for a position in his administration?”

In response to his appearance w/ Donald Trump on Monday, Chris Christie says, "I wasn't being held hostage," … Hmm pic.twitter.com/3zLjkUBIGj

— 𝗧𝗥𝗢𝗬 𝗛𝗨𝗚𝗛𝗘𝗦 (@TommySledge) March 3, 2016

In other words, if Christie’s campaign is about revenge against Trump, the odds are that his 2024 campaign will end just like his 2016 one did, with him holding the bag and absolutely nothing to show for it.

Flashback: Chris Christie Tells on Himself in War of Words With Donald Trump