Former Gov. Chris Christie is blaming President Donald Trump for the Republican Party’s bruising losses in New Jersey last year, arguing that the president’s standing in the state turned the GOP’s 2025 elections into “an absolute disaster.”

In an interview Sunday on 770 WABC’s “Cats Roundtable,” Christie said Trump’s unpopularity in the Garden State weighed heavily on Republican nominee Jack Ciattarelli.

“We lost the governorship by 14 points. We lost five seats in the New Jersey General Assembly,” Christie said, noting that the party is now at its lowest representation in the Legislature since Watergate. “It is a desperate time in New Jersey. We forgot how to win.”

Christie, once a close Trump ally before a highly public falling-out, said Ciattarelli’s embrace of the president alienated a critical bloc of voters in a state where Democrats hold a sizable registration advantage.

“The problem for Jack Ciattarelli was when he tied himself so close to the president, a lot of independents in New Jersey were turned off by that,” Christie said. “For the first time in a long time, the Republican candidate for governor actually lost independents to the Democrats. If that happens, you have no chance of winning.”

New Jersey, Christie argued, is uniquely inhospitable terrain for Trump-style politics. “The fact is that the president is not nearly as popular in the state of New Jersey as he is in other parts of the country,” he said, adding that Ciattarelli made himself “100 percent MAGA” — a move that “really, really hurt him.”

The former governor said the scale of the defeat underscored the problem. “It turned out not to be just a small loss, but a huge one,” he said.

Christie also warned that Republican setbacks could have policy consequences. With Democrats firmly in control of state government, he said he would not be surprised if lawmakers raised taxes again, pointing to New Jersey’s already high corporate, property and income tax rates.

Still, Christie sought to draw a contrast between New Jersey Democrats and their counterparts across the Hudson River, arguing that the state’s political climate remains less ideologically rigid than New York’s.

Sherrill, he said, is not a “hard-left Democratic socialist” like New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. “New Jersey is a very tough place,” Christie said, “but I bet you it will be better than New York.”

Christie served as governor from 2010 to 2017, making him the only Republican elected statewide in New Jersey in the 21st century. He ran unsuccessfully for president in 2016 and again in 2024, both times losing out to Trump.

His relationship with the president deteriorated sharply in recent years, with Trump repeatedly taunting Christie over the “Bridgegate” scandal that marred his governorship. While two Christie associates were initially convicted for their roles in the lane-closure scheme at the George Washington Bridge — convictions later overturned by the Supreme Court — Christie has long denied any involvement.