Why Chris Christie changed his mind about Donald Trump

When Chris Christie was a presidential candidate spending weeks at a time outside New Jersey on the campaign trail, he frequently pleaded for Republican primary voters to probe the promises made by Donald Trump.

At one town hall event in the New Hampshire seacoast town of Hampton on the morning of the Super Bowl, Christie had the crowd of 300 in stitches, mocking Trump as an entertainer who had no business seeking the GOP nomination.

“It’s gonna be an incredible, marvelous, beautiful wall!” the New Jersey governor said, impersonating Trump. “The wall is gonna have a door. The door is going to go open and close, the good people come in, the bad people go out ... and the Mexicans are gonna pay for the wall because Trump says you pay for the wall!”

A different kind of door opened Friday, and Christie strode through it, endorsing Trump for president and at the same time making a fresh bid for relevancy that many see as desperate.

Still, the move came as a puzzler to those who had seen Christie in action just a few weeks ago, and stunning to those in the anti-Trump camp who thought Christie might be on their side.

EDITORIAL: Why Christie changed his mind about Donald Trump

“A crisis for Donald is when his favorite restaurant on the Upper East Side isn’t open,” was Christie’s reply to a question on the campaign trail about how a President Trump would deal with an economic crisis.

Christie was courted by prominent Republicans to run for president in 2012. He declined but came away with the plum keynote speech slot at the Republican National Convention.

Now, it’s hard to imagine Christie staying in favor with those who had cheered his ascent into national politics, said Stuart Roy, a former communications director for the National Republican Senatorial Committee under Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

“Christie was a serious federal prosecutor, a serious governor, and a serious candidate who is now endorsing an unserious candidate,” Roy said. “It will be about as effective as taking a course at Trump University.”

WATCH: Hero officers wouldn’t give up on Bonnie

Political analysts said Christie’s boarding of the Trump Train — just a few days before Super Tuesday, when more states vote and more delegates are at stake than on any other single day in the presidential primary campaign — adds a new dynamic to efforts by party establishment leaders to stop Trump from becoming the Republican nominee.

“I’m sure the Washington elite was shocked when that came across their iPhones, with Christie going with Trump,” said Dave Carney, a New Hampshire-based Republican who served briefly as chief political adviser for former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s 2012 presidential run and was a top adviser to former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, another presidential candidate.

Carney said few saw the endorsement coming or could predict the timing, thus qualifying it as vintage Christie.

“It’s sort of like the Chris Christie of old. Brash and bold,” Carney said. “It makes Christie a player again. He’s back in the game.”

However, some saw Christie’s move his only viable option, other than focusing on the remaining months of his lame-duck term as New Jersey governor.

Republican Party leaders have been drawn in recent weeks to the candidacy of U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, but Christie would have none of that — not when he called out Rubio for lack of experience at the GOP debate early in February, attacking with the punching skills he perfected back home in dialed-up town hall arguments with the likes of teachers concerned with education cuts, a former Navy SEAL, and people upset with the slow pace of Sandy recovery efforts.

A rattled Rubio pivoted four times to a rehearsed line about President Barack Obama, creating a viral moment.

Rubio survived.

Christie?

Now it seems clear he couldn’t move on from the Rubio fixation, said Matthew Hale, a Seton Hall University political scientist.

“Christie clearly can’t stand Marco Rubio,” Hale said. “This announcement is an example of that and designed to deflate whatever momentum that Rubio hoped to get.’’

Christie on Trump: "Of course there�s things I disagree with him on"

For safe harbor, Trump was the best choice for Christie, said political consultant Doug Watts, Ben Carson’s former communications director.

Watts in an interview hours before the endorsement announcement said he expected Christie to end up in Trump’s camp.

“He’d be a fabulous member of the top team in the Trump administration,” Watts said. “Those guys are friends and they have a personal respect for one another. In my judgment, if Trump is elected, he intends to go out and get the best of the best, take-no-prisoners type of people who will work hard in public service, and I think Chris Christie totally fits that bill.”

Christie was on the sidelines only briefly. Two days after the Super Bowl, Christie’s own campaign for the White House was demolished when he finished sixth in the New Hampshire Republican primary.

In the 2 ½ weeks that followed, there were few signals on what Christie was up to.

Back home in New Jersey, Christie avoided the media to the extent that he caused a ruckus at the grand reopening event of an elementary school in Newark last Wednesday, delivering brief remarks to students but leaving the stage while the school principal was speaking.

His exit — Christie disappeared through a curtain, stage left — prompted television crews and other media members to also take off in pursuit, startling the young audience members.

WATCH: Christie dodges questions at Newark school event

Christie made it to a waiting SUV and was gone before reporters could catch up to him and ask him about the campaign that he had suspended Feb. 10.

As it turns out, it wasn’t his own campaign about which Christie was avoiding conversation .

The next day, Thursday, Christie had a secret meeting with Trump in New York and flew to Texas that night in advance of the endorsement announcement in Fort Worth on Friday.

The public schedule for Christie issued by the Governor’s Office didn’t say he would be out of the state Thursday or Friday.

Christie in Fort Worth sidestepped questions about Trump’s controversial views of Muslims, Mexicans, women, the pope and the Sept. 11 attacks.

Tony Fratto of Hamilton Place Strategies, who worked in the George W. Bush White House, told Politico that Christie’s alignment with Trump means “his days of leadership are over.”

Fratto also noted how Christie had previously criticized Trump for his anti-Muslim and immigrant comments, saying, “Did he mean those things or is he a liar?”

A New Jersey union leader, Milly Silva, who ran on Democrat Barbara Buono’s ticket against Christie in the 2103 gubernatorial election, said the endorsement was a “disgraceful affront to the people of New Jersey.”

“In a state with one of the largest immigrant populations in the country, it is inexcusable for our governor to throw his support behind a bigot calling for a ban on Muslim travel to the U.S. and the deportation of 11 million people. Christie is callously putting his personal ambitions ahead of the interests of the people he is supposed to serve.’’

Monmouth University pollster Patrick Murray said Christie’s endorsement could be bad news for state Republicans unwilling to go their own way.

“Those with the national party trying to stop Trump’s momentum are not going to send help to New Jersey if the state GOP goes along with Christie on this,” Murray said. “It puts a lot of folks in New Jersey in a difficult spot.”

Murray said he wouldn’t be surprised if Christie has won a promise of a job with Trump, though Christie and Trump said no deal is in place.

More: Why is Chris Christie opposed to a beach smoking ban?

Christie’s term as governor runs through January 2018, but his approval ratings here are low and the state budget is under pressure from credit downgrades and catch-up payments due to retirement programs for public workers.

“The message I got from the endorsement is that Christie wants (more than) anything to be out of New Jersey,” Murray said.

“I don’t know why Christie did it,” said Kyle Kondik from the University of Virgina’s Center for Politics. “He may have sensed that Trump was likely to be the nominee and that it was time to get on board.”

“I can tell you one thing, though, if some other Republican wins the nomination and the White House, Christie will be persona non grata.”

Bob Jordan: 609-984-4343, bjordan@gannettnj.com