Chris Christie accuses Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley of eyeing 2028 runs

Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie’s campaign fired shots at rivals Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley on Friday, accusing the two of keeping their powder dry for 2028 by being reluctant to criticize former President Donald Trump.

A Christie campaign memo blasted out to “donors and stakeholders” argued that the recent consolidation of the GOP field will only strengthen Trump if other White House hopefuls decline to directly attack him.

“They are each trying to do just enough to finish second, because they think it will position them as a front-runner four years from now once Trump is out of the picture,” the memo read under a bullet entitled, “Running for President … In 2028.”

“If the field were cleared for one of them, they are not going to risk their shot at a second place finish by upsetting Trump’s most loyal supporters,” the document went on.

The former New Jersey governor, 61, has qualified for each of the first three GOP debates and has made it a point to directly call out Trump, 77.

Notably, Christie has been one of the only candidates to say he would not support the former president’s nomination if he were to be convicted in the ongoing criminal cases against him.

Both DeSantis and Haley have said they would support Trump either way if he were the Republican nominee, but have stepped up criticism of the former president as the campaign has gone on.

DeSantis, 45, has said the former president was “missing in action” from the debate stage, and claimed last month that Trump can’t win the general election because his nomination would only “energize” Democrats to turn out for President Biden.

Haley, 51, argued on Sunday that Trump was followed by “drama and chaos,” but admitted that she agrees “with a lot of his policies.”

The Haley and DeSantis campaigns did not immediately respond to inquires from The Post regarding Christie’s attack.

Christie has been chomping at the bit to confront Trump directly in a debate and has claimed he would try to “find” the former president to have a talk if that doesn’t come to pass. Christie has also said he would defeat Trump in a physical fight and that he would “kick his ass.”

Christie’s attack was aimed at the two nearest GOP competitors to Trump — DeSantis is at 14.8%, according to RealClearPolitics‘ national polling average, while Haley is at 9.6%.

Christie, meanwhile, is polling at 2.1% in the national average, falling behind biotech mogul Vivek Ramaswamy as well as the three frontrunners. Christie is seeing an uptick in support in New Hampshire, where a pair of recent polls show him in third place behind Trump and Haley.

Despite his low polling numbers, Christie’s memo argued he still has the bandwidth to defeat Trump, who is averaging a lead of more than 40 points above the rest of the field.

“The candidates who can clearly differentiate themselves while running efficient, smart campaigns will go the distance,” the memo stated.