Former Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Wednesday reacted to Donald Trump's claim that he would end the war in Ukraine in "24 hours" if re-elected by suggesting that the former president would allow Russia to take over Ukraine.

"Donald Trump says he would end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours tonight on CNN. Despite how ridiculous that is to say, I suspect he would try to do it by turning Ukraine over to Putin and Russia. #Putin’sPuppet" Christie wrote on Twitter.

Trump didn't explain how he would go about negotiating the end of the war.

Christie, an outspoken Trump critic, also cited Trump's refusal to say that he wanted Ukraine to prevail in the conflict as "more proof that he continues to be Putin’s puppet."

The super PAC pushing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' expected White House run called former President Trump's CNN town hall "an hour of nonsense."

“On the same day Ron DeSantis was assailing Joe Biden's border crisis, Donald Trump was on CNN attacking DeSantis and lying about finishing the border wall," Erin Perrine of Never Back Down said in a statement.

"The CNN townhall was, as expected, over an hour of nonsense that proved Trump is stuck in the past. After 76 years, Trump still doesn’t know where he stands on important conservative issues like supporting life and the Second Amendment. How does that Make America Great Again?” 

Before the often-contentious town hall before New Hampshire voters, Never Back Down called the CNN event with Trump a "true marriage of equals."

"A candidate who has lost his luster appearing on a network that’s lost its ratings. Both ignore a key fact: 2024 isn’t 2016. The old gimmicks and tired lines don’t work anymore," CEO Chris Jankowski said in a statement ahead.

Donald Trump's campaign released a statement following his hour-long CNN town hall Wednesday night that officially kicked off the Republican primary race ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

"Tonight, President Donald J. Trump laid out his vision to reverse the Biden Decline starting on Day One," his campaign said.

"Joe Biden has turned everything into a disaster: inflation, the economy, the border, crime, energy, China, Russia and wokeness in schools.

"President Trump will save the economy, bring down inflation, secure the border, crush the Deep State and prevent World War 3.

The campaign added that he is "the only one who can stop the forces from destroying our country —anyone else will be ripped to shreds."

Trump is vying for the White House for a third time following his successful presidential run in 2016 and his 2020 loss to President Biden.

CNN faced the wrath of numerous lefty journalists and politicos over its town hall featuring former President Trump Wednesday night.

New York House Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said in a tweet CNN should be “ashamed of themselves.”

"They have lost total control of this 'town hall' to again be manipulated into platforming election disinformation, defenses of Jan 6th, and a public attack on a sexual abuse victim. The audience is cheering him on and laughing at the host,” she said.

MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan also blasted the competing network.

“I thought this #CNNTownhall with Trump would be bad but it’s much worse than I thought it would be,” Hasan tweeted. “The lack of follow-ups. The audience on his side. The mocking of a victim of sexual abuse. Sheesh.”

New York Times' 1619 Project author Nikole Hannah-Jones said CNN was “massively ill-equipped for this.”

Daily Beast’s Washington Bureau Chief Matt Fuller called it an “irresponsible disaster of journalism.”

Former CNN host and media reporter Brian Stelter cut town hall moderator Kaitlan Collins some slack, noting she’s a "great journalist. She has been assigned an impossible task.”

A clearly frustrated Donald Trump called CNN moderator Kaitlan Collins "a nasty woman" after she continued to push him about the documents that were seized during a raid on his Mar-a-Lago estate in August.

Trump claimed he had "every right" to possess the records under the Presidential Records Act, but Collins, at points trying to talk over him, told him several times "that's not true."

When she asked if he had shown the records to anyone, Trump replied, "Not really," and when Collins pressed him again, the former president said, "Not that I can think of."

She then asked Trump why "you held on to those documents when you knew the federal government was seeking them and given you a subpoena to return them?"

"Can I talk? Do you mind?" Trump snapped as the crowd jeered. "It's very simple to answer."

"That's why I asked it," Collins responded.

"You are a nasty person, I tell you," he told Collins as the audience chees.

Donald Trump claimed that he had "every right" to keep documents that were seized from his Mar-a-Lago estate in August during his CNN town hall Wednesday night.

"I had every right to [take the records] under the Presidential Records Act," Trump said before questioning why only his home was raided by federal authorities for documents and not President Biden or Mike Pence, who were also found to have documents.

Trump dismissed moderator Kaitlan Collins when she told him the Presidential Records Act does not allow him to do that.

When she asked Trump why, unlike Biden and Pence, he ignored a federal subpoena for the records, the former president said that he was negotiating with the National Archives and Records Administration.

Former President Trump refused to call Russian President Vladimir Putin a war criminal on Wednesday and boasted that the Russian invasion of Ukraine would have never happened if he were still in the White House. 

“If I were president, this would have never happened. And even the Democrats admit that Putin knew it would have never happened,” Trump claimed. 

“If I'm president, I will have that war settled in one day — 24 hours,” he asserted, without saying how he would end the conflict. 

“Do you believe that Putin is a war criminal?” CNN moderator Kaitlin Collins asked.

“This should not be discussed now. It should be discussed later. Because right now we have to get a war – if you say he's a war criminal it is going to be a lot tougher to make a deal,” Trump argued.    

Trump would not rule out re-implementing an immigration policy that was in place during his administration that separated families at the border as a deterrent, pointing to the dire situation in New York City.

"Look at New York City. They're living in Central Park in New York City," Trump claimed during Wednesday night's town hall event in New Hampshire," Trump said.

"The city is being swamped, Los Angeles is being swamped, Iowa is being swamped our whole country is getting destroyed."

Trump estimated that there could be as many as 15 million people crossing into the country from the southern border once Title 42 expires this week.

Separating families at the border worked as a means of convincing migrants not to flock to the United States, he claimed.

Former President Trump said that Thursday's end of the Title 42 border policy will be a “day of infamy” for the Biden administration. 

“You're gonna have tens of thousands of people pouring into our country,” he said. 

Trump then suggested that another version of Title 42 should be implemented, accusing migrants of crossing the border of being “sick.” 

“If people are sick and have infectious diseases and lots of other problems -- we don't want them being in our country. We have enough problems right now. We have problems like we've never had in the history of our country,” he said.

Former President Donald Trump responded “Drill baby, drill” when asked what he would do to help bring down the cost of goods amid the country's record-high inflation.

Trump added that the “stupid fools” in the Biden White House rolled back his administration's policies promoting energy independence, leading to inflation.  

“Energy went from $1.87 and even lower gasoline … they went from $1.87 to $5, $6, $7, $8 and even $9. And your electricity bills went through the roof, your heating bills went through the roof — and that's what started inflation,” Trump said. 

On the national debt, Trump said the country is “spending money like drunken sailors” and “is being destroyed by stupid people by very stupid people.”

He signaled that defaulting on the debt might not be a major problem.

“It's psychological. It's really psychological more than anything else. And it could be very bad. It could be maybe nothing,” he said.

Former President Trump touted his record as a defender of Second Amendment rights during his CNN town hall Wednesday and vowed to continue protecting it if elected again.

"Nobody protected the Second Amendment like I have," he said.

Trump also said he would do more to address the nation's growing mental health issues and tighten up security at schools if elected.

"It's not the gun that pulls the trigger, it's the person that pulls the trigger," Trump said, adding that people who do not have guns are "not going to be very safe."

So far this year, there have been more than 200 mass shootings across the US, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

Donald Trump would not say whether or not he would sign a federal abortion ban if re-elected to the White House.

CNN moderator Kaitlan Collins pushed Trump several times on the issue, offering him an opportunity to say what kind of federal abortion bill he would support.

Trump said that "getting rid of Roe v. Wade was an incredible thing for pro-life because it gave them something to negotiate with."

He said he will work with other Republican lawmakers to possibly come to some sort of consensus on what the cutoff date for aborting a fetus should be -- be it six weeks, 12 weeks or longer as other states have determined in their own abortion bans.

"I would negotiate so that people are happy," he said.