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Bobby Jindal emphasized, however, that Donald Trump is not a conservative. | Getty Jindal: I would vote for Trump

Though he spent the majority of his campaign for the Republican nomination railing against Donald Trump, former Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said Tuesday that he will vote for the real estate mogul, reluctantly, if he becomes the nominee.

Appearing on CNN, Jindal responded to comments that former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman made to POLITICO last week in which the 2012 presidential candidate and former U.S. ambassador to China remarked that Trump is better positioned than any other Republican candidate to assemble a coalition across party lines.

"Three things. One, I have a tremendous amount of respect for Gov. Huntsman," Jindal said. "Secondly, I think Donald Trump is going to have the hardest time beating Hillary of all the Republican candidate that ran for president."

Then again, Trump would still be the best choice, Jindal suggested.

"Having said that, third, however, if he is the nominee I will be voting for him, I will be supporting him," he said, explaining that there are "quite simply too many important issues," giving it "a chance" that Trump would get rid of Obamacare.

"I think there's a zero percent chance that Hillary Clinton would do that. So yes," Jindal continued. "If it comes down to a binary choice between Donald Trump, I'm supporting the party's nominee. I'm not happy about it. I don't think he's the best qualified, I don't think he's the one most likely to be successful, but I would vote for him over Hillary Clinton."

Jindal would not appear to be holding his breath for Trump to accomplish much (or any) of what he is boasting on the trail, however. Trump is not a conservative, Jindal said, and that may be why he is doing so well.

"We conservatives have to go back and do a better job of explaining our beliefs and principles to the voters. I think Donald Trump is tapped into the middle class anxieties when conservatives say they're for limited government, entitlement reform, free trade," Jindal said. "Donald Trump is not for those things and doing well in part because voters are responding to what he's saying. He's saying, look he'll fight for them. I don't think Donald Trump will do a lot of things he said he's going to do but I do think he's done a very good job of tapping into middle-class voters' anxieties."

Asked what made him feel that way, Jindal remarked, "I don't think he's opposed to big government; I just think he wants to be the one running big government. I do think he'll be better than Hillary Clinton."