Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie recently met with President Donald Trump’s debate preparations team, and will possibly act as former Vice President Joe Biden in mock debates, Axios reports.
Trump held a meeting with several of his closest aides at his New Jersey golf club about two weeks ago, where they discussed the three debates he has scheduled with Biden, the Democratic Party's presumptive presidential nominee. In attendance were Jared Kushner, his son-in-law and adviser, campaign manager Bill Stepien, senior adviser Jason Miller, and Christie, who played Hillary Clinton in mock sessions ahead of the 2016 debates.
Christie’s inclusion may come as a surprise, since he claimed in his recent book that Kushner pushed him out as Trump’s transition team chairman because he prosecuted Kushner’s father more than a decade ago, when Christie was a federal attorney, for witness tampering and tax evasion.
Sources told Axios that the debate prep team agreed to meet about once every 10 days leading up to the first debate. Although they did not specify that Christie will play Biden, Trump did make comments in private that indicate he will. Trump has previously said in private that Christie “was better than Hillary,” and that he found him “harder to debate than Hillary” following their mock debates in 2016.
"I don't think he [Trump] sees the debates as the last inflection points, but potentially the most important," one source told Axios. "I think he always thinks he can create an inflection point.
"But he has verbalized how important these are going to be," the source continued. "He's said, 'We gotta win. The press will never give me the credit for it, but the people will.'"
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.