He’s the most popular governor in America, and would have been president if…

Oh. Wait. Scratch that.

I’m talking about New Jersey Governor Chris Christie… possibly THE LEAST popular governor in America, and I don’t think he came anywhere close to being president.

Just don’t tell him that. He apparently doesn’t know.

In an interview with NJ.com, Christie muses on his chances in the 2016 race, had Donald Trump not entered and turned everything on its head.

Said Christie:

“It’s incredibly frustrating to think to yourself, ‘Wow, if this guy were not in the race, we’d win this thing,'” Christie told NJ.com in an interview published Sunday. “And I absolutely believe if Trump had not gotten into the race I think we would have won.”

I’m going to guess that it’s easy to say that now, since there’s really no way of knowing, but if I had to put money on it, I wouldn’t be betting on President Chris Christie.

I mean, there was that Bridgegate thing, after all.

“What Bridgegate did was deprive me of the benefit of the doubt — that’s all,” he said. “That’s a big thing. But that’s what it did.”

Suuurrrree. That was it.

So if not for Bridgegate, which was totally not political payback on his part, and Donald Trump in the race, he was a shoo-in.

“[The] stakes are exciting. The issues you’re talking about are exciting,” he said. “And ultimately frustrating at times because the reaction I would get from people and Mary Pat got this from going door to door, you know, they’d say, ‘Oh gosh, you’re Governor Christie’s wife? We love him. He’s so smart. He’s so direct, he’s so blunt. We love him. We’re voting for Trump. But we love your husband. He’s amazing.'”

Ok. How many said that? Was that just in Jersey? I can believe the same people who loved Trump’s rude, obnoxious ignorance are the same people who would enjoy Chris Christie, but I have a hard time believing they’d turn out to vote for him, with or without Trump.

Christie left the race and immediately rolled over to be a full-fledged flunky, bowing and fetching before Trump in the most cringeworthy fashion.

In return, he got fat jokes and assorted shows of disrespect.

It was obvious that he felt there was something in it, for him. Some were whispering vice president. Others felt he’d get the attorney general nod.

He got neither.

He was put as head of the transition team, but even that didn’t last, before he was replaced with Mike Pence and booted back to Trenton.

So who ejected him, after he’d been such a loyal and unwavering servant?

Many felt it had to be Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law. There was reported tension between the two, since Christie was instrumental in having Kushner’s father locked away around 10 years previous.

Christie revealed in the interview who really put the boot in his back:

“I can only tell you who ultimately executed on it and that was [Steve] Bannon, [Reince] Priebus, and [Jared] Kushner,” he told NJ.com. “They were the three guys in charge and they were the ones who ultimately made that recommendation to the president. And I think they ill served him by doing it.”

Because he would have been so much better off with Chris Christie on his team.

Actually, he might have a point. It would be hard to do worse.

Still, you kind of have to feel bad for Christie. He was so sure that schmoozing Trump, at the expense of actual conservatism, would be his ticket out of Jersey.

There’s always 2020. Trump may need you to fetch your shinebox and come on back, then.