Bruce Springsteen Walks Past Chris Christie at Concert

Bruce Springsteen has been known to work a crowd — but at his Thursday night show at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, one particular hand he left unshaken is now all anyone can talk about.

Video captured during the E Street Band’s May 15 performance — first shared on X by journalist Mike Ryan — shows Springsteen, 76, making his way through the crowd, high-fiving fans as he went. Then he turned a corner, and there was former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, 63, arm outstretched, ready for his moment. Springsteen walked right past him. Head down, still in it, still performing. Christie’s hand snapped back. He looked up, shrugged it off, and went back to clapping along to the music.

The internet, naturally, lost its mind.

“HAHAHA Bruce Springsteen WAS NOT HAVING IT with Chris Christie,” one user posted. Another offered a more charitable read: “It looks like Bruce thought he was just a guy showing him which direction to go.” A second clip from the same show also circulated, showing Christie in full superfan mode — fist-pumping, air-guitaring, dancing like he was 19 years old at the Stone Pony. That footage only added fuel to the fire.

Christie’s Complicated Springsteen Story

To understand why this moment landed so hard, you have to understand just how deep Christie’s Springsteen devotion runs. This isn’t a casual fan. Christie has said he’s attended more than 150 of Springsteen’s concerts over the years. His X bio literally reads: “Husband, proud father, former Gov and U.S. Attorney, Springsteen fan.” He has described Springsteen’s music as a defining part of his life since his teenage years, and on The Fifth Column podcast in March, he described their personal relationship as “really good,” saying, “We text, we talk.”

He even recalled a previous concert where Springsteen called him late at night just to confirm he’d spotted Christie in the pit — catching his wife completely off guard.

So yeah. The snub — if that’s what it was — stings a little differently when you’re that guy.

Their history together goes back to November 2012, when former President Barack Obama played matchmaker of sorts. During a phone call about Hurricane Sandy relief, Obama told Christie that Springsteen wanted to speak with him. The two had a brief conversation — and later that same month, they met face-to-face backstage at a Hurricane Sandy benefit concert at Madison Square Garden.

Christie was openly emotional about it. “We hugged,” he told reporters. “He told me it’s official: we’re friends. I told the president today, actually, that the hug was great and when we got home, there was a lot of weeping because of the hug. And the president asked why. I said, ‘Well, to be honest, I was the one doing the weeping.’”

That warmth didn’t last long.

Bridgegate, Parody Songs and a Rocky Middle Chapter

In 2013, Christie’s administration became embroiled in the “Bridgegate” scandal — staff members were accused of deliberately engineering traffic jams near Fort Lee, New Jersey, as political payback against a mayor who hadn’t supported Christie. Christie was never criminally charged, but the controversy shadowed his 2016 presidential run.

Springsteen didn’t stay quiet. In 2014, he joined Jimmy Fallon on Late Night to perform a parody of “Born to Run” skewering the whole mess. “Baby this Bridgegate was just payback / It’s a bitch slap to the state Democrats,” Fallon, 51, and Springsteen sang together. “We got to get out while we can / We’re stuck in Governor Chris Christie’s Fort Lee-New Jersey traffic jam!”

Christie later admitted he was furious. “Then I was p******,” he said on the podcast.

But according to Christie, things eventually thawed. He’s described a chance airport encounter in 2015 where Springsteen pulled him aside and apologized for “piling on.” Christie said he accepted it, and the two agreed to move past the politics. Christie also noted that Springsteen had initially respected his work as U.S. attorney going after corruption in Asbury Park — it was Christie’s Republican governorship starting in 2010 that cooled things between them.

Where Both Men Stand Now

The Barclays moment is getting extra attention because of where both men are politically right now. Springsteen has been one of Donald Trump’s most vocal celebrity critics — in March, he called the Trump White House a “corrupt, incompetent, racist, reckless and treasonous administration.” Trump fired back on Truth Social in April, calling Springsteen a “dried-out prune” and urging supporters to boycott his music.

Christie, for his part, has spent the last several years as one of Trump’s most outspoken Republican critics — a dramatic reversal from the man who endorsed Trump in 2016 and chaired his Opioid and Drug Abuse Commission in 2017. He’s told Bill Maher that Republicans “speak very differently” about Trump behind closed doors, and by 2024 was openly saying that “Make America Great Again has always offended me, because it implies that America wasn’t great.”

So in theory, these two should be on the same page politically. And yet.

TMZ noted that even with Christie’s evolution on Trump, Springsteen may simply not vibe with the former governor regardless. Whether Thursday’s moment was an intentional brush-off or just Springsteen locked into the performance, nobody outside of The Boss himself knows for sure. Representatives for both men had not commented as of Friday.

The show itself was part of Springsteen’s Land of Hope and Dreams stadium tour, and the setlist — which included “Born to Run,” “Dancing in the Dark” and “Streets of Philadelphia” — was everything fans came for.

Christie, for his part, danced through all of it.