A former adviser for President George W. Bush claims that President Donald J. Trump will leave office in 2019, surrendering the office to Vice President Mike Pence, who will then be challenged and defeated in the Republican primaries by loathsome former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.
In his newest guest column in NJ.com, former Bush adviser Alan Steinberg offered an implausible series of events that would lead to former Governor Christie having another shot at becoming the next President of the United States.
According to Steinberg, President Trump will use his presidency as a bargaining chip to avoid criminal prosecution in 2019, paving the way for Vice President Pence to assume office. Pence, facing horrible reelection prospects after President Trump’s departure, will be ousted by Christie, who Steinberg claims is not “a bigot, a racist, a misogynist, or a xenophobe.”
So the search will be on for an alternative 2020 Republican presidential candidate to Mike Pence. Given the ability of the Trump base to veto any such alternative, the Pence opponent must not be somebody identified as a Trump adversary. That rules out former Ohio Gov. John Kasich or Nebraska U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse.
The Republican who will emerge as the opponent to Pence will be none other than former Gov. Chris Christie, a man of irrepressible ambition who has never relinquished his presidential aspirations. And his service in the 2016 Trump campaign ensures his acceptability to the Trump base.
Steinberg claims that President Trump’s base would accept Christie because he has been an occasional ally of President Trump, allowing the party to coalesce around the one candidate who could beat an insurgent Democrat Party.
As fanciful as this scenario must seem to the majority of Americans, Steinberg is completely serious in his assessment.
“So get ready for the next political comeback of Chris Christie,” Steinberg concluded, “his most impressive comeback yet.”