Two facts stand out about Donald Trump’s remarkable ascension to the presidency. First, no presidential candidate—not even Barry Goldwater or George McGovern—faced so much internal opposition from his own party, with many major figures saying Trump was manifestly unfit for office. Second, that opposition, which initially seemed so fierce, quickly diminished to almost nothing. Trump was able to consolidate enough of the Republican vote to win an Electoral College victory, and from there any lingering dissent has been almost wholly stamped out.



The big political story of 2016 was the failure of Never Trump, a movement of brave defiance that ended in capitulation. This is a story that will have fateful consequences, because there is every evidence that the powers that be in the GOP, notably Speaker Paul Ryan, are going to continue surrendering to Trump on key issues, paving the way for Trump to remake the Republican Party as he sees fit.

Senator Marco Rubio, for example, said Trump was a “con man” and too dangerous to control the nuclear codes, but he ended up endorsing him. Ryan said Trump’s attack on a Mexican-American judge for his ethnicity was the “textbook definition of a racist comment,” but he also endorsed Trump. In June, Mitt Romney said a President Trump would incite “trickle-down racism and trickle-down bigotry and trickle-down misogyny—all of these things are extraordinarily dangerous to the heart and character of America.” After Trump won, Romney quickly made his peace with him, telegraphing that he would serve as Trump’s secretary of state, a job application that has required him to undergo a humiliating ritual of praising Trump and walking back his earlier comments.

But one man perfectly symbolizes how the Republican Party bowed before Trump: Ted Cruz.

Cruz has every reason—both personal and political—to hate Trump. In March, in the thick of the Republican primary, Trump retweeted an image that contrasted the physical appearance of his wife Melania with that of Cruz’s wife Heidi, the implication being that Heidi Cruz was not sexually desirable. Cruz responded the next day by saying Trump should “leave Heidi the hell alone.” In May, Trump touted a National Inquirer story that alleged that Cruz’s father Rafael was involved in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.