Chris Christie is making his move for the White House. Job one is attacking Donald Trump.

A year ago, Chris Christie wouldnt even call former President Donald Trump out by name when he warned an audience at the Ronald Regan Library not to let a few zealots control the Republican Party.

Now, theres no holding back for the former New Jersey governor with eyes on the White House.

This guy is a loser, Christie told NJ Advance Media in a recent interview. He cant win. Hes won once and everything hes done since then is lose.

Christie, the first major Republican politician to back Trump in 2016 who stayed in the former presidents sphere until he refused to concede his loss that culminated with the Jan. 6 insurrection, is making his early move for a possible presidential run.

And job one is to openly attack Trump, an easy target among some Republicans who blame the former president for GOP midterm election losses and whose big announcement of a third White House bid landed with a thud.

Christie is doing that with relish.

Were going to win so much, youre going to be sick and tired of winning, he said, mocking Trump by impersonating his voice from a speech the former president gave back in 2016.

Im tired of losing, Christie said. Weve got to change course.

Christie got a standing ovation last week from hundreds of GOP donors after trashing Trump at a Republican Governors Association meeting in Orlando, Florida, about 170 miles from Mara Lago.

He boasted that people thanked him the rest of the day and the following day for what he said. Donors, he knows, want winners.

The voters were sending us very clear messages in a lot of parts of the country, Christie said about Trump-backed candidates. No thanks. Theres no question he picked and the party nominated some underperforming candidates saying really ridiculous things and the public didnt accept it. Get politics news like this right to your inbox with the N.J. Politics newsletter. Add your email below and hit “subscribe”
      

As for Trumps early announcement, Christie says he cant know for sure what drove the former presidents timing but said he thinks its a defensive maneuver. … He could feel it slipping from him and he wants to go out there and try to stop.

For the former New Jersey governor, Trumps election day failures could only boost his own long-shot chance to run for president again. Christie says hes not close to making such an announcement.

I have six months to decide, Christie said when asked about it. He has said hell figure it out by the second quarter of 2023.

A small group of the old team has come back into the fold. When Christie gave a speech at the Reagan Library in September 2021, three people who were part of his inner circle were with him, including Maria Comella, arguably one of his most trusted advisers who recently left a corporate gig to start her own consulting firm.

Christie confidant Bill Palatucci contends its premature to talk about 2024, saying nothing has changed about Christies day-to-day routine that suggests a run is imminent.

But Palatucci acknowledges the big impediment for any Republican not named Donald Trump to run for the White House may no longer exist.

There is a growing group that is anybody but Trump, Palatucci said. A year ago that was a very small group and people were very reluctant to stick their head up and say Im part of the group and now youre seeing that as a major growing chorus.

Pollsters and political pundits say Christie is yesterdays news. Will his unpopularity in New Jersey, the states economic woes when he was governor, and the mortal sin of embracing former President Barack Obama after Hurricane Sandy come up if he runs again? Yes, yes, and yes.

Christie, whose 2016 presidential campaign highlight was destroying U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio in a debate, is currently where he was then: solidly in the lower tier of presidential wannabes.

And the top tier of potential contenders is populated by big-name politicians, including Trumps new target, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and former vice president Mike Pence (Christie hasnt said much about DeSantis, but last month he noted the Florida governor wanted federal aid in the wake of Hurricane Ian yet voted against aid for Hurricane Sandy as a congressman a decade ago).

Nonetheless, Christie has a big platform, blanketing the airwaves as an ABC analyst shoving the midterm losses in Trumps face just as the only winning high-profile Senate candidate Trump endorsed in the primary, JD Vance in Ohio, didnt even mention Trump in his victory speech.

Just as he was an early Trump backer. Christie put his chips on moving past Trump soon after he dug in on denying he lost the election.

The candidates who delivered public policy results and had a vision for the future did much, much better than candidates who were stuck in the past, Henry Barbour, a leading Republican strategist who serves on the Republican National Committee for Mississippi, said.

People want results, said Barbour, who added that he voted for Trump twice. Theyre not interested in drama.

Barbours uncle Haley Barbour, the former Mississippi governor who once headed the Republican National Committee, was one of Christies earliest supporters. He stressed to Christie that nothing matters if you dont win elections. And thats what Christie is preaching to his fellow Republicans now as the prelude to 2024 begins.

I think anybody would be foolish to say he couldnt be a serious candidate for president, Henry Barbour said. Is he in the front group right now? No. But hes got quite a political engine that could take him a long way in the race if he performs well.

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Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @MatthewArco.