Is Chris Christie the anti-Trump warmongering candidate the neocons will get behind?

the former governor wants to carry the neocons water in the general election

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“There is a right way and a wrong way, always choose the right way.”  Abraham Sabrin (1914-2001)

Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor (2010-2018) and 2016 GOP presidential candidate and former Trump advisor, has emerged as the most vocal critic of Donald Trump’s presidential bid.  Christie’s anti-Trump rhetoric has earned him tons of media coverage especially with an extensive Wall Street Journal interview. It is worth reading to get a sense of Christie’s strategy to win the GOP presidential nomination.

Christie is appealing to the neoconservatives who want a pro war GOP presidential nominee, who is “right” on climate change and pays lip service to fiscal responsibility and shuts his mouth about the Federal Reserve. 

The neoconservatives, who gave us two Middle East Wars, the overthrow of Kaddafi in Libya, the continued attempt to overthrow Assad in Syria, and the current proxy war in Ukraine, will demonize any anti-interventionist presidential candidate like RFK Jr. in this presidential cycle and just like they did to Ron Paul in 2008 and 2012.   No antiwar presidential candidate will be allowed to become the nominee of either major political party.  This is the reality of American politics in 2023.   

As far as Christie is concerned, he wants to be known as a fiscal conservative despite his lie about his first state budget. 

“First is that we’ve got to go back to controlling government spending. It’s what caused the inflation that we’re still living with. And the fact is that I dealt with this when I was governor. . . . I inherited $11 billion deficit on the $29 billion budget and everybody said that I was going to have to raise taxes to balance it.” (emphasis added)

He did not “inherit” an $11 billion budget deficit.  It was $1.2 billion.  Christie, a self-admitted “not good at math” individual, apparently moved a decimal point to make an unfounded claim on the campaign trail about his fiscal conservative credentials.  Whether journalists fact check his gross exaggeration remains to be seen.

In addition, Christie revealed his lack of understanding of what causes inflation, which he blames on government spending.  Christie should read Rothbard’s money monograph as should all the candidates.  Any presidential candidate who does not criticize the Federal Reserve for causing inflation and the boom-bust cycle is in effect “controlled opposition.”

On the international scene Christie is “begging” the neocons to get behind him with this excerpt from his interview. 

“In terms of our posture around the world, I am an unabashed supporter of Ukraine. I absolutely believe this is a proxy war by China against us. They are funding the Russian war effort; they are coordinating the provision of more sophisticated weapons to Russia with Iran. And we need to fight this fight there and now because otherwise we’ll be fighting it with American troops someplace else in the world at China’s instigation, directly or even indirectly.” (emphasis added)

Christie is making the case he will be faithful to the neocons interventionist foreign policy.  For that reason alone, Christie should be opposed tooth and nail by noninterventionists.  Someone should ask Christie if he would force his children to join the military if he became the next commander in chief. 

In the final pitch to the neocons Christie stated his “climate change” bona fides.  He should take some time on the campaign trail and read the material published by the CO2 Coalition to get the truth about “climate change.”   

“I believe in climate change, but we’re not going to solve it by ourselves and our Western European friends.” (emphasis added)

Chris Christie may emerge as Trump’s major challenger if he comes in second in the New Hampshire primary.  Whether he would get any more traction would be problematic if GOP primary voters take a close look under the hood of another big government, pro war candidate. 

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My latest piece on the economy was published in Fortune, https://fortune.com/2023/03/27/recession-2023-layoffs-tech-finance-unemployment-outlook-fed-rates-murray-sabrin/  This is an update of my 2021 forecast, https://fortune.com/2021/12/09/next-recession-heres-everything-bubble-markets-2021-2022-covid-murray-sabrin/ 

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Murray Sabrin, PhD, is emeritus professor of finance, Ramapo College of New Jersey. Dr. Sabrin is considered a “public intellectual” for writing about the economy in scholarly and popular publications. His new book, The Finance of Health Care: Wellness and Innovative Approaches to Employee Medical Insurance (Business Expert Press, Oct. 24, 2022), and his other BEP publication, Navigating the Boom/Bust Cycle: An Entrepreneur’s Survival Guide (October 2021), provides decision makers with tools needed to help manage their businesses during the business cycle.  Sabrin's autobiography, From Immigrant to Public Intellectual: An American Story, was published in November, 2022.