In conversation with Chris Christie

Christie proposed means-testing Social Security and gradually raising the retirement age only for people now in their 40s or younger. He said politicians privately admit the next administration must address entitlements, but tell him they cannot believe he is saying so publicly.

On Ukraine, Christie put most responsibility on Putin but said weak U.S. signaling contributed to the invasion. He called the 2008 NATO promise without a plan a poorly considered provocation, supports membership after the war, and opposed admission during fighting because it could trigger direct NATO-Russia war.

Christie said Pentagon waste is significant and argued for zero-based budgeting rather than assuming the $877 billion defense budget should simply continue. He would spend less if requirements could be met, otherwise reallocate money toward ammunition, submarines, ships and air power, while restricting officials from immediately working on issues they oversaw in government.

His immigration position paired a merit-based legal system with tougher border enforcement, not military intervention inside Mexico. He would deploy the National Guard with Customs and Border Patrol against fentanyl trafficking and, if local prosecutors refused to act, direct U.S. attorneys to take over violent- and drug-crime prosecutions in affected cities.

Christie presented New Jersey’s bipartisan bail reform as evidence that criminal-justice reform need not mean weaker public safety. He said the state added dangerousness to bail decisions, closed two prisons, saw 98% of released defendants return for court, and cut recidivism nearly 40% among inmates who completed prison-based addiction treatment.

On Trump’s cases, Christie said he would have brought the two federal prosecutions but not the New York or Georgia cases. He said prison would make little sense for Trump at his age; as president he would not pardon a valid conviction, though he would consider commuting a prison sentence.

Christie said his 2016 Trump endorsement was pragmatic: he expected Trump to win the nomination, preferred him to Hillary Clinton and hoped their 15-year relationship let him influence Trump. After 22 years knowing Trump, he said the presidency made him worse and that Trump did not truly believe the 2020 election was stolen.

Christie treated family access-for-profit as a bipartisan corruption problem. He said Hunter Biden’s foreign business appointments were about gaining influence with Joe Biden, but also called Jared Kushner’s post-White House $2 billion Saudi investment and Trump-family financial behavior “grift,” pledging his own family would not profit from his presidency.