Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie in his new kiss and tell book entitled Republican Rescue said that in 2018, he was told by Kelly Anne Conway that President Trump was considering him for
Conway reached out to Christie in early December, then he got the call from Trump’s secretary to meet him in D.C.
Then, on December 12, I got a call from Donald Trump’s personal secretary Molly.
“The president would like to see you tomorrow evening at the residence for a conversation,” she said. “What about?” “He didn’t tell me,” she answered. “He just wants you to come to the White House, and the meeting will be up in the residence . .” “Okay,” I said. “I’ll be there.”
I made a reservation for the next afternoon on the Amtrak Acela train to Wa.shington. Was this the follow-up to what Kellyanne was talking about? Or something totally different? With Trump, I knew it could be anything.
His mind was constantly jumping from topic to topic, especially when the topics involved hiring and firing the people who reported to him. Especially the firing part. He’d think about firing someone, poll his friends for their opinions, think about not doing it, then think about doing it again- and truly, you could never really be sure how, when, or where he would land. That was just Trump.
All I knew was what Kellyanne had told me and that I hadn’t heard another word about it since. “If I had a guess,” I said that night to my wife, Mary Pat, “I think he’s offering me chief of staff. What do you think I should do?” Mary Pat had been through this drill with me before.
As usual, she threw the decision back at me.
”Do whatever you want to do,” she said, “but I’m not coming to Washington with the kids. We need to stay in New Jersey.” We have four busy children, two boys and two girls. Our younger son, Patrick, was a senior in high school. Our younger daughter, Bridget, was a sophomore.
“We can’t go anywhere,” Mary Pat said. “And this is a twenty-four-seven job. If you go, you’re gonna go down there and live on your own. Whenever you can come back and see us, you’ll come back and see us. But if I were you, I wouldn’t make a decision on the spot if he offers it. Tell him you’ve got to come back and talk to me, and we’ll figure it out.” “Agreed,” I said. Before I left home for the train station.
Christie then confided with James Baker on what he should do and Baker and Christie decided Christie would go to D.C. to meet with the President and conduct business. He even brought a briefcase and claims the briefcase made the President feel uncomfortable.
“What’s with the briefcase?” Christie claims Trump asked ahead of the meeting.
“Well,” Christie said. “This is a business meeting. So I’m here to do business.”
Christie then mocked Trump’s response of “Ohhh” into “a couple of syllables”.
Christie said he got down to business with the President, outlining his list of demands to take the job.
“Here we go,” Trump said. “We’re going to do business now. Chris is taking his notes out.”
Agreeing with Christie on his demands, Trump’s dealbreaker with Christie was his insistance on controlling his own media presence.
“No, no, no, no!” he said Trump responded. “I control those. I decide when you go on tv and that’s it.”
After the meeting, Christie blamed Trump for leaking their meeting to the media. In the end, Christie never got the job, claiming he declined it.