TRENTON — The reviews are in on Gov. Chris Christie's trip to the United Kingdom, and they are not good.

"I think the trip was an utter failure," said Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian at Rice University and the author of bestseller, "The Reagan Diaries."

"It should have been a trip of 'good behavior' instead of showing a short fuse, because by any time an American leader goes abroad, there's a diplomatic nature to the trip."

Billed as a trade mission, the three-day trip to Great Britain that ended on Tuesday quickly devolved into a vaccine imbroglio of the governor's own making, dominating headlines and forcing him to retreat from the media without taking questions.

"Instead, he came across like a bull carrying his own china shop with him," Brinkley said.

Brinkley said Christie then revealed a lack of control when he snarled at a Washington Post reporter who pressed him on the West's response to ISIS, "Is there something you don't understand about 'No questions'?"

Even assuming the governor's remarks in favor of vaccine choice — which prompted his office to clarify them — were coolly calculated to curry favor with Libertarian and conservative voters, the move still didn't serve Christie well, said Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University and a presidential historian.

"The vaccine statement wasn't in his best interest," said Zelizer. "It goes against the kind of conservative he's trying to paint himself — a fiscal conservative, rather than a cultural one. ...There are other Republicans (in the field) who can do that better than him."

The timing of the trip also caught Christie somewhat flatfooted, as it coincided with 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney's announcement last Friday that he would not seek his party's nomination again.

"It came at a time when the (Jeb) Bush people were calling all the former Romney supporters to get them on board," said Patrick Murray, the director Monmouth University Polling Institute. "Most of those (fundraising) calls are made by surrogates, but (Christie) was in a five hour time zone difference" which left the governor at somewhat of a disadvantage.

One former GOP presidential campaign manager who declined to speak for attribution said that overall, the trip "surpasses Romney's (2012 London) trip as a failure, because he showed that he's not ready for prime time." Romney had made headlines in July 2012 after suggesting London may not have been adequately prepared for the security risks associated with hosting the 2012 summer Olympic games.

"Taking a foreign trip is always a risk," said the former campaign manager, "It takes thoughtful planning. Getting in fights with reporters is not a good start. Making international news accidentally is not a good rule."

This GOP operative went on to note that with only one other establishment Republican in the running for 2016, the race for cash from Wall Street donors will be that much more intense between Christie and Bush, and that Christie had not helped himself in that regard with the events of this week.

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Claude Brodesser-Akner may be reached at cbrodesser@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @claudebrodesser. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.