Chris Christie Pokes Fun at Trump’s ‘Half-Full’ CPAC Crowd
“There are lots of indicators here that he’s not what he used to be.” Christie said during an interview Sunday.

Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters
Chris Christie isn’t done jabbing at his former ally, Donald Trump.
As the former president hit the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) over the weekend, Christie couldn’t help but notice the small turnout.
“You saw the scenes at CPAC, that room was half-full,” Christie said during an appearance on ABC’s This Week Sunday.
“Let’s not pretend that CPAC is CPAC any more, it’s TPAC – it’s Trump PAC. It’s not CPAC any longer and only the most desperate people showed up at CPAC to even speak, other than Trump or people in Trump’s orbit.”
“You saw the scenes at CPAC. That room was half-full…He’s the frontrunner and ahead in the polls. But there are lots of indicators here that he’s not what he used to be,” @GovChristie says of former Pres. Trump’s campaign events. https://t.co/GnEV64SDvo pic.twitter.com/4VFIeCBUpA
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) March 5, 2023
Trump, who famously has used rallies to shore up his base of support nationwide, has made fewer stops this run due to a lack of enthusiasm, Christie then argued.
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“I don’t think the rallies would be nearly as big as they were before,” he said. “There are lots of indicators here that he’s not what he used to be.”
“He measures that [crowd size] as an example of his own power and authority, and I don’t think he has it any more. There are lots of indicators here that he’s not what he used to be.”
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Christie, who worked on Trump’s campaigns in both 2016 and 2020, has become a regular thorn in his side of late, saying earlier this week he believes the former president will be indicted in at least one of the state and federal probes digging into Trump.
Despite the middling CPAC crowd, Trump still holds a demanding lead over competitors—including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis—in most Republican primary polls.
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