Chris Christie is a big-time fanboy. And never underestimate the thrill of being a fanboy. It can lead to behavior that might seem puzzling at first, or maybe unseemly. But then, the more you think about it, it all makes perfect sense.

This occurred to me on Sunday morning while I watched the New Jersey governor squirm his way through an interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “This Week.” It was mostly devoted to Christie’s endorsement of Donald Trump on Friday. As you would expect, Stephanopoulos kept pressing Christie to defend some of the “ideas” that Trump had made the centerpiece of his campaign (like making Mexico pay for Trump’s “big, beautiful wall” along the southern border), ideas that Christie dismissed previously when he himself was a candidate.

The interview did not go well. At one point, Christie actually looked scared, like a little boy who had not quite thought through the magnitude and ramifications of what he had taken on.