Don hires Christie’s B’gate pal

A former top aide to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie who got fired over his role in the “Bridgegate” scandal will be Donald Trump’s White House political director.

Trump’s selection Wednesday of Bill Stepien (above with Christie) — who avoided prosecution over the politically motivated traffic jams — marked the presidentelect’s latest public humiliation of the beleaguered Garden State governor, whose approval rating has plunged to a mere 18 percent.

Stepien, 39, successfully managed both of Christie’s victorious gubernatorial campaigns and was his deputy chief of staff for intergovernmental affairs in between.

But Christie threw Stepien under the bus in January 2014 when e-mails emerged that showed Stepien downplaying the George Washington Bridge feeder-lane closures as they were under way and calling the mayor of Fort Lee “an idiot.”

Christie fired Stepien from his job as a consultant to the Republican Governors Association, which Christie then chaired, and also withdrew his backing for Stepien to take over leadership of the New Jersey GOP.

At the time, Christie said that reading Stepien’s e-mails “made me lose my confidence in Bill’s judgment, and you cannot have someone at the top of your political operation that you do not have confidence in.”

In August, Trump hired Stepien as national field director for the race against Hillary Clinton, and Stepien’s appointment to a plum White House post is the most recent in a series of slights against Christie, who has failed to land a job in the incoming administration.

Christie’s fall from favor has been precipitous. The first GOP opponent to endorse Trump, he has gone from potential VP candidate to leading debate prep for Trump, and was thought to be in line for chief of staff or a Cabinet post.

But three days after Trump’s election, Christie was demoted from head of the transition team and was soon out altogether.

In addition to dumping Stepien in 2014, Christie fired Stepien’s successor as deputy chief of staff, Bridget Anne Kelly, who was later revealed in a report commissioned by the Christie administration to have been “personally involved” with Stepien.

Kelly — who wrote the infamous “time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee” e-mail that proved to be the smoking gun in the Bridgegate case — was convicted along with ex-Port Authority official Bill Baroni on conspiracy and fraud charges. Additional reporting by Kaja Whitehouse