New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s, R, surprise endorsement of Donald Trump just rocked the political world — making Christie the first major national GOP figure to endorse the outsider candidate whom the GOP establishment is feverishly trying to figure out how to defeat.

In endorsing Trump, Christie said he would be the best GOP presidential nominee “to stop Hillary Clinton from ever getting in the White House again” and praised him as a substantial political figure.

But it wasn’t always this way. In fact, Christie’s version of events Friday contrasts sharply with what he had said about Trump just weeks ago, as Trump’s competitor for the GOP nomination.

Witness this, from NJ.com:

“Gov. Chris Christie on Monday said Donald Trump’s call for a ‘total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States’ in the wake of the San Bernardino terror attack is ‘ridiculous,’ deriding it as ‘the kind of thing that people say when they have no experience and don’t know what they’re talking about.’ “

And this, from NJ.com:

” ‘There’s no question in my mind (that it wouldn’t), but there are folks in this race who don’t care about what the law says because they’re used to being able to just fire people indiscriminately on television,’ said Christie, referencing Trump’s decade-long stint on NBC’s reality television competition, ‘The Apprentice.’ “

And this, from FoxNews.com:

“New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie strongly refuted Donald Trump’s claim that thousands of Muslims in New Jersey cheered after the 9/11 terror attacks, claiming that it simply ‘didn’t happen.’

” ‘It didn’t happen and the fact is, people can say anything, but the facts are the facts, and that didn’t happen in New Jersey that day and hasn’t happened since,’ Christie told reporters on Monday at a campaign stop in New Hampshire.”

And this, for the win, from The New York Times:

“At a town hall meeting in Portsmouth, N.H., Mr. Christie expressed disbelief at Mr. Trump’s comment Saturday that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan and lose no support in the 2016 campaign.

” ‘It’s pretty amazing to say it, isn’t it?’ ” Mr. Christie asked.

“Briefly slipping into an impression of Mr. Trump – ‘We’re stupid,’ he deadpanned in a throaty baritone – Mr. Christie said he empathized with voters who want to ‘burn Washington down.’

” ‘But who’s going to rebuild it once it gets burned down?’ Mr. Christie said. ‘That’s what you’ve got to think about.’

“By nominating the wrong candidate, he continued, ‘We could wind up turning over the White House to Hillary Clinton for four more years.’

“That prospect, he said, would be ‘like the eight years we’ve just had, except worse.’ “