Was Chris Christie ousted from the Trump administration because he was a camera hog?

Chris Christie meets with Donald Trump in New Jersey on Nov. 20
(Image credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

The demotion of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie from short-lister for Donald Trump's running mate to long shot for any significant role in the Trump administration is one of the enduring mysteries of the Trump transition. Allies of Christie and Trump both insist that Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law whose father was sent to jail by Christie, is not behind Christie's fall from grace, but they don't agree on the reason he was largely frozen out of the Trump presidential transition, Hunter Walker says at Yahoo News.

Christie loyalists say that the New Jersey governor did a professional job putting together a transition plan and that the Trump team was caught flat-footed because nobody around the president-elect expected him to actually win. "Trump has said he didn't want anything to do with the transition because he's superstitious," one Christie ally told Yahoo News. Team Christie adds that his demotion to honorary vice-chairman of the transition when Vice President-elected Mike Pence was named chairman is just a normal part of the shift from theoretical to practical, with one Christie ally pointing to Dick Cheney's takeover of the transition effort for George W. Bush in 2000.

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.