Chris Christie thinks he is the only person who can stand on a debate stage with Donald Trump and beat him. He is the “Trump destroyer”, at least in his mind. Christie has not officially decided whether or not to enter the GOP primary. He says he’ll decide by June. In the meantime, he is doing things that look like he’s interested in running like the two-hour town hall event he did on Monday night.

Christie boasted that he would do to Donald Trump what he did to Marco Rubio on that debate stage during the 2016 campaign. Remember when Christie went after Rubio and essentially stopped his momentum in New Hampshire? Christie did poorly in the New Hampshire primary but he stopped Rubio from coming in at the top and delivering a blow to Trump. Christie and his supporters don’t think that Governor Ron DeSantis has what it takes to stand up and deliver a winning performance against Trump.

Chris Christie held a town hall at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics a must-do event for any presidential hopeful, which was followed by a private dinner with close friends, former supporters, and some donors. His supporters in New Hampshire hope he runs in the primary.

And his old supporters who gathered in Manchester on Monday consider that to be a selling point for potential presidential candidates like Christie and New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, a fellow Republican blue-state governor who’s also considering a run.

“You have Trump, and you have the alternative to Trump,” former New Hampshire GOP Chair Wayne MacDonald, who chaired Christie’s 2016 campaign in New Hampshire. “Once you start comparing his record in New Jersey with DeSantis’ record in Florida, you’re going to see a much more viable and effective leader than Governor DeSantis is. And I think that’s going to enable him to emerge as the alternative to President Trump.”

He frames the justification for his entry into the race as being the person with the skill to take out Trump. His supporters say he can present an alternative to Trump’s politics of grievance, that Trump’s message has been all about him and victimhood, while Christie can deliver a strong and positive message. It’s important to remember that Trump’s performance on a debate stage is unrelenting and often brutal against his competition.

“You have to be fearless, because he will come back — and right at you,” Christie said. “And that means you need to think about who’s got the skill to do that, and who’s got the guts to do that, because it’s not going to end nicely.”

Is Ron DeSantis ready for Trump? I’ve never seen DeSantis debate but Trump acts threatened by him. If you watched Trump’s interview with Sean Hannity on Monday night, you saw Trump tear into DeSantis as a crying, begging candidate when he first ran for governor in Florida who was desperate for Trump’s endorsement. Trump made his criticism of DeSantis very personal. He also lies about DeSantis and how he handled the coronavirus pandemic in Florida. Floridians overwhelmingly re-elected DeSantis and Florida is a ruby-red state now. That has to sting Trump who is trying to make DeSantis look unqualified to run for president.

Christie has been playing coy about his own presidential ambitions for several months. The New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anslem College has been an essential stop for two decades for presidential hopefuls and candidates of both parties. Christie is certainly acting like he is seriously considering another run for president. Is he just jerking our chain or is he really going to get in? That’s the question. The first Republican debate is scheduled for August so he said by June he’ll let his decision be known. June is about as late into the calendar as a potential candidate can go before declaring his or her candidacy.

Christie is a regular panelist on ABC’s Sunday morning political show and enjoys being asked if he’s running in the primary. He has time before he has to say one way or the other if he’s running. DeSantis has not made the leap and won’t, probably, until May. In the meantime, Trump will continue to try to chip away at him. Trump doesn’t attack Nikki Haley or Vivek Ramaswamy, the other two declared candidates. Haley is slowly beginning to criticize Trump on the campaign trail but Ramaswamy kisses up to Trump. So, that’s an interesting contrast as they try to find their lanes in the primary race.

Chris Christie wants to be seen as the Trump destroyer. The question is whether he is all talk and no action when it comes to taking the leap into the primary. He is known as a good communicator and an in-your-face kind of debater. His campaign crashed and burned seven years ago by the New Hampshire primary where he finished in sixth place. He turned right around and endorsed Trump. He continued to support Trump up until 2020 when Trump declared the presidential election victory was stolen from him. Now he’s bitter against Trump and regularly criticizes him during his appearances on television.

“I don’t want to hear anybody in this room saying ‘ah you know you’re saying this because you’re a never-Trump,’” Christie told the audience. “I was the first one on the bus and I worked all the way thru Election night 2020 for him.”

But Christie added to applause “I got off the train when he stood up in the West Wing of the White House behind the seal of the president and told us the election was stolen when he didn’t have one fact to back it up. I’m sorry. That’s when I get off. Because the truth matters.”

Christie told his audience in New Hampshire that Trump is all about Trump now, not the American people. He said the GOP is the party of me, about Trump. He noted that Republicans can’t win as the party of me, it must be the party of we. He called the other candidates “Trump lite” candidates.

He said he’ll make a decision in 45 to 60 days and it will depend on three things – “seeing a pathway to winning… believing that you have something at that moment to offer the country that it needs to hear,” and whether he would have the support of his family. If all three of those conditions are there, he’ll run. If one isn’t there, he won’t.

I don’t look for Christie to run. I think he is trying to bloody up Trump a bit as the first debate gets closer. And, I think he is trying to warn DeSantis about how bruising the primary race is going to be for him and his young family. We’ll see what happens next.