Pay his legal bills.

‘He’s the cheapest S.O.B. I’ve ever met’: Christie rips Trump for diverting campaign money to PAC

The former president has previously used his Save America political action committee to pay his legal bills.

By KELLY GARRITY

The news that former President Donald Trump is steering donations away from his 2024 presidential campaign and into a political action committee he has previously used to pay his legal fees may have come as a surprise to some of his donors.

But not so for former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Trump’s chief detractor in the GOP primary.

Trump is “the cheapest S.O.B. I’ve ever met in my life,” Christie told POLITICO on Tuesday evening. “What Donald Trump is good at is spending other people’s money.”

The former president began diverting a larger share of his political donations to his Save America PAC in February or March, The New York Times reported on Sunday, and may have already redirected at least $1.5 million.

“This is a billionaire who refused to pay his lawyers with his own personal money, and instead, men and women out there who believe in him and wanted [him] to be elected president are donating money to try to forward his candidacy … and he’s diverting that money to pay his own legal fees,” Christie said.

“He should take a pledge today to instruct his campaign to no longer spend any public money on his legal fees,” Christie added. “He is the richest candidate in this race, yet he is using public money to pay his legal fees. He should be ashamed of himself.”

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Christie’s criticism.

Save America previously paid $3 million to cover attorney Chris Kise’s legal work representing the former president, and footed the legal bills for some key witnesses in the investigation into Trump’s possible mishandling of classified documents — a case in which he was recently charged with 37 federal felonies.

The former president is also facing an indictment in New York, and his legal woes — and the associated costs — could continue to swell this summer as he awaits the results of investigations into his role in the Jan. 6 riots and possible election interference in Georgia.

Christie has attempted to carve a lane for himself in the presidential race as the principal — and often only — antagonist to the former president. While other candidates have largely shied away from hitting the current frontrunner head-on, Christie, once a Trump ally, has bashed him at every turn.

It’s a strategy that hasn’t resonated with the swath of the Republican base that still idolizes Trump, and one that recently got the former governor booed during the annual Faith & Freedom conference last week, where Trumpism reigns supreme.

But Christie is gaining ground in New Hampshire, where he has centered his campaign efforts. A Saint Anselm poll out Tuesday had him polling at 6 percent among New Hampshire Republican primary voters, putting him third.

But he’s still well behind Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ 19 percent and Trump’s 47 percent.

“June in the year before the election is not a time when people should be figuring out who they think is gonna win and who they think is gonna lose,” Christie said. “No campaign has really started yet in earnest.”