Republican presidential rivals, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former President Donald Trump are in a war of words, not over the 2024 race but about former President Barack Obama.

The spat first began when Trump accused Christie of being "star-struck" over Obama, which he said hurt Republican nominee Mitt Romney during the 2012 presidential election.

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"Christie was so star struck with Barack Hussein Obuma, that Romney, who is a terrible politician and horrible representative of the Republican Party, never had a chance of winning the Presidency," Trump posted on Truth Social Tuesday with the infamous image of Christie meeting with Obama and shaking his hand, as New Jersey recovered from Hurricane Sandy in October 2012, just before the November election. Hurricane Sandy would damage or destroy 346,000 homes and cost over $30 billion in damages, making it the costliest natural disaster in New Jersey history.

"Christie sold Romney out, making one of the worst Convention Speeches in History—Virtually not even mentioning Romney by name. Romney sat watching, in a trance — He couldn’t believe it!" Trump continued.

After the Obama embrace, Christie was criticized by conservatives for his "bromance" with Obama mostly due to Christie's praise of Obama in the wake of the hurricane, which some Republicans felt damaged Romney in the final days of the campaign. Obama would defeat Romney in 2012 and win reelection.

Christie, a vocal Trump critic on the campaign trail, took to Twitter on Wednesday to push back against Trump's criticisms. "Yeah... I invited the sitting President to New Jersey during the worst natural disaster in our state's history," Christie tweeted, defending his meeting with Obama.

"But I didn't invite him to my wedding... Donald - did you dance the night away with Hillary?" Christie taunted with a link to a photo of Trump, former first lady Melania Trump smiling with former President Bill Clinton, and former 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

The photo was taken during Trump's January 2005 wedding at the former president's Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida. It was Trump's third wedding and an indication that he was at least friendly enough with the Clintons for them to attend the nuptials. Trump would later vanquish Hillary during the 2016 election.

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Before jumping into the 2024 race Christie served as a Trump ally and helped prep him for his presidential debate with President Joe Biden in 2020. Christie would later break from Trump after the 2020 election and the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Since then, Christie has been an ardent Trump critic, frequently slamming him on the campaign trail.

"I believe if you're president, every day you wake up, and you ask yourself what's best for the country and whether that's good for you politically or personally has to come behind that," Christie said about Trump during a campaign event this week. "And that's my biggest objection to Donald Trump. It's that he's never put the country before himself, ever."