Steve Cohen is apparently ready to continue a great tradition of Mets owners: Getting scammed out of a bunch of his money. Several reports yesterday said that former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie will soon announce a run for president, with the financial backing of Cohen. Semafor labeled its report an all-caps “SCOOP” and focused on Christie also winning the support of Anthony Scaramucci, the guy who was White House communications director for a week. Christie, Scaramucci and the owner of a baseball club with a record of 22-23: With a dream team like this, how could Christie lose?
Christie, a man shaped like the Phillie Phanatic who is still reviled in his home state, last ran for president in 2016. After eight years as New Jersey governor he left office with an approval rating of 15 percent, making him the state’s least popular governor ever. In 2016 he received 57,637 votes in Republican primaries, or 0.18 percent of all votes cast, and won zero delegates. He’d previously said at a Semafor event—wow, what a get for them—that he would run for president if he thought he could win. Sounds like he thinks he has a real shot.
Christie supported Donald Trump in 2016, an endorsement he was widely mocked for—especially after being snubbed for the attorney general job. Trump told Christie he was a political liability, which has to be an incredible thing to have said to you by Donald Fucking Trump. In March, Christie pledged to never support Trump again!
As such, he is attempting to position himself in the primary as the anti-Trump candidate. Republicans are rallying around Trump because he was recently indicted for allegedly attempting to cover up a hush payment to Stormy Daniels, and because he was found liable in a civil trial for sexual abuse; I understand that doesn't make a lot of sense on its face but this is all a lot easier to understand if you think of politics as fan culture, which it is. A recent New York Times story said the primary was not turning into the referendum on Trump some expected. It also said Christie “has yet to generate much interest.” The only real reason for him to run is to get a bunch of mentions in the media, so that he can later go charge 25 grand for speeches about integrity and leadership or whatever. That part seems to be working; outlets as old as CBS and as new as Semafor continue to interview Christie as if he has something to say.
Cohen has backed Christie before. He donated $6 million to a pro-Christie PAC when he ran in 2016, and named Christie to the Mets board of directors two years ago. Christie even advised the Mets on their search for a new president of baseball operations, which is possibly why they could not fill the job with an outside candidate. (Longtime Mets FO guy Sandy Alderson, who took the job in 2021, officially left the role this February.)
Cohen will surely be wasting his money on Chris Christie’s campaign, but all the general public will get out of it is mockery. With an estimated $16 billion fortune, Cohen is by far the richest team owner in baseball. Cohen could decide to make Chris Christie a billionaire with one enormous Zelle transaction and he’d still be richer than God. Actually, can Cohen just do that? Then maybe Christie will just spend the rest of his days relaxing on a private beach and we won’t have to hear about him anymore.
