Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie isn’t holding back as President Donald Trump finds himself at the center of MAGA’s growing fury over the so-called “Epstein files.” In a pointed appearance on ABC’s This Week Sunday, Christie made it clear he believes Trump has only himself to blame for the political firestorm now engulfing his administration.
“What Donald Trump is learning is when you start the fire, sometimes you can’t put it out,” Christie told co-host Jonathan Karl. “He started this Epstein fire during the campaign—and even before that—by spinning it as some elaborate Democratic plot. He used that narrative to energize his base. Now he’s discovering the consequences.”
The backlash erupted after the Department of Justice and FBI confirmed that convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein likely died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial, and that no concrete “client list” of high-profile individuals exists. The findings directly contradicted long-running conspiracy theories that have been heavily promoted within pro-Trump circles.
Christie criticized Trump not only for lighting the match, but also for trying to deflect accountability now that the fallout has landed on his administration.
“This idea that Pam Bondi went rogue? Nonsense,” Christie said. “There’s no way, in my opinion, she made that decision without direction from the White House. That’s why Trump is defending her—because he told her to do it.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi is under growing pressure from MAGA loyalists after she claimed back in February that Epstein’s “client list” was “on her desk” and ready for review. Since then, no such list has been released.
The internal turmoil deepened last week when FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino confronted Bondi directly at the White House, accusing her of overpromising on Trump’s 2024 campaign pledge to declassify everything related to Epstein. According to reports, Bongino failed to show up to work on Friday and privately issued an ultimatum: “She goes or I go.”
Trying to put out the flames, Trump rushed to Bondi’s defense in a lengthy Truth Social post, writing:
“What’s going on with my ‘boys’ and, in some cases, ‘gals?’ They’re all going after Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is doing a FANTASTIC JOB! We’re on one Team, MAGA, and I don’t like what’s happening.”
Christie, however, dismissed the post as damage control and said it shouldn’t absolve Trump of responsibility.
“We cannot let the president off that easily,” he said. “He benefited directly from the conspiracy theories he promoted. He fueled them. He encouraged them. And now that it’s blown up in his face, he wants to play peacemaker.”
The latest controversy comes as Trump’s allies fracture over how to handle the Epstein scandal, with demands for transparency clashing with efforts to downplay the issue entirely. According to Christie, the president’s effort to sweep the matter under the rug is unlikely to satisfy the movement he helped radicalize.
“Trump is learning that once you unleash that kind of distrust and paranoia, it doesn’t go back in the box so easily,” Christie concluded.