Chris Christie, the perpetually aggrieved ex-governor of New Jersey, dropped a zinger on ABC’s This Week Sunday, claiming President Donald Trump plays checkers, not chess. Host Jon Karl was mid-sentence about the government shutdown when Christie unloaded, painting Trump as a simplistic tactician fumbling through high-stakes politics. It’s classic Christie—blunt, bombastic, and begging for cable news clips—but let’s peel back the bluster. Christie, who suspended his own 2016 presidential bid after scraping single digits in Iowa, has made a second act out of Trump-bashing, positioning himself as the straight-talking alternative in a GOP primary that’s more cage match than chessboard. This isn’t just shade; it’s a calculated jab from a guy whose own political playbook looks like a game of Sorry! lost to a toddler.
For the 2A community, Christie’s quip lands like a misfired round in the chamber, especially amid the shutdown chaos that Trump leveraged to spotlight border security—a proxy for defending Second Amendment heartland values against open-border policies that flood communities with crime and dilute conservative strongholds. Trump’s checkers style? It’s raw, populist power moves that delivered the 2017 tax cuts, record-low Black and Hispanic unemployment, and two SCOTUS justices who’ve fortified gun rights (think Bruen’s smackdown on sensitive places restrictions). Christie, meanwhile, governed a deep-blue state where he signed microstamping mandates and assented to magazine bans under pressure, earning NRA F grades and alienating the very base that sees Trump’s blunt force as chess mastery against a left that plays 4D Twister with our rights. His dig ignores how Trump’s shutdown gambit forced Democrats to own their obstructionism, rallying 2A voters who remember Obama-era ATF overreach and fear a Harris-Harris regime’s assault on firearms.
The implications? Christie’s checkers insult is red meat for NeverTrumpers but poison for pro-2A warriors eyeing 2024. It underscores the GOP’s internal rift: elite strategists like Christie peddling electability while Trump’s king-me-over-pawns approach crushes gun-grabbers at the ballot box. As primary season heats up, 2A folks should demand candidates who play to win—like Trump did by stacking courts with originalists— not pontificate from the sidelines. Christie’s not just wrong; he’s a reminder why we back fighters, not fiddlers.
