Both Trump and his newly assigned delegate wrangler subsequently whined about the process, each taking a different tack. The wrangler, Paul Manafort, appeared on "Meet the Press," where he was asked about having been shut out in Colorado.

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He started by complaining about Cruz.

"You go to these county conventions, and you see the tactics, Gestapo tactics, the scorched-earth tactics," Manafort said, prompting surprise from host Chuck Todd.

What Donald Trump is doing on the campaign trail share Share View Photos View Photos Next Image U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event at Trump Doral golf course in Miami, Florida, U.S. July 27, 2016. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri (Carlo Allegri/Reuters)

"Well, you look at, we're going to be filing several protests because reality is, you know, they are not playing by the rules," Manafort replied. But what happened in Colorado was a "side game." "The only game I'm focusing on right now is getting delegates," Manafort said. "And the games that have happened, even this past weekend, you know, are not important to the long-term game of how do we get to 1,237."

So, getting delegates in Colorado is a side game to the real game of getting delegates? Interesting. It also seems more fair, based on the evidence at hand, to assume that Cruz did play by the rules, which was why he won so many more delegates. It was Trump's campaign that wasn't prepared for the process.

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Trump himself issued two 140-character press releases on the subject.

The answer to Trump's first question is that the Colorado Republican Party opted to eliminate its presidential preference vote, apparently in response to the party mandating that delegates be bound to a candidate. But that the party opted for its delegate election system doesn't mean the system was sprung on the candidates at the last minute. Cruz's campaign certainly knew how to win the contest as formulated. Trump simply and obviously got out-organized.

But then, on Monday morning, Trump called in to "Fox and Friends," where he was presented with another utterly baffling sign that his team hasn't yet found its sea legs: His children Ivanka and Eric are not registered to vote in New York state, so he won't have their votes in the state's primary next week.

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"They had a long time to register, and they were unaware of the rules and they didn't register in time," Trump said. "So they feel very, very guilty. They feel very guilty. But it's fine, I mean, I understand that. I think they have to register a year in advance, and they didn't."

A year in advance? The state Board of Elections has a slightly smaller window: The new voter registration would have needed to have been filed by March 25. Of 2016. Those two votes probably wouldn't have mattered much, but it's impossible not to see how their inability to register mirrors the campaign's inability to figure out the process elsewhere.

It's not clear whether the two weren't registered or whether they needed to change their party registration to vote in the closed primary. If it's the latter, the deadline was earlier. They'd have needed to change their registrations by Oct. 8 of 2015. But they had an expert who could have guided them through it: Donald Trump.

Trump's success has been a function of voters rewarding his unorthodox candidacy with an unexpected wave of votes. Were the process of earning a party nomination simply a function of who gets the most votes, Trump would win easily. But party nominations aren't normal elections. They're contests put on by the party itself to serve its own internal functions — meaning that it's messy and weird and at times undemocratic.

That contest, Trump has been unable to figure out. He's been unable to figure out how to do much beyond ask voters to pledge to support him.

Even if those voters share his DNA.

Update: The campaign sent a statement signed by Ivanka and Eric Trump.