By his calculation, Sam Nunberg has spent one eighth of his life working for Donald Trump.

The twice fired former Trump employee worked for him for four and a half years.

Now he’s going off the reservation and backing Ted Cruz.

The news was first reported by Politico Playbook.

Nunberg, quite the talker or “reporter whisperer” as Mike Allen nicknamed him, has lots of complimentary things to say about Trump. He doesn’t want to work for the Cruz campaign. So it’s almost hard to comprehend why he felt the need to take a hatchet to his relationship with Trump.

“I learned a lot from him,” Nunberg, 34, told The Mirror in a phone conversation this week. “He’s an extremely nice and wonderful guy.”

This is the same nice and wonderful guy who fired Nunberg twice — the first time for the unflattering BuzzFeed profile written about The Donald in 2014; the second time for the inexplicably racist scraps that showed up in Nunberg’s Facebook history, remarks he claims he doesn’t remember and never wrote.

But as Nunberg explains it now, he wants “a voice in this process.”

Huh? WHAT? Why would Sam Nunberg need a voice in the 2016 presidential process?

“I’m not working for Cruz’s campaign or anything,” he assures.

When I ask if he has a heavy heart about officially destroying a relationship with a man he once supported so completely, he replies, “That’s fine,” he says, perhaps a trace of sadness in his voice. “It is what it is.”

So why support Cruz?

Nunberg insists that up until three weeks ago he still supported Trump and considered Cruz his “strong second choice.” But “there was a chain of events” that pushed him too far.

First, there is New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie possibly landing an Attorney General position in the Trump administration. “Chris Chrsitie is one of the most corrupt politicians in the country, he should be in jail for Bridge-gate,” he says. Second, “Trump said he would have soldiers would have war crimes.” Third, “he offered to pay the legal fees of the rally attendee who punched the protestor in the face.” Fourth, “he said on Morning Joe that he trusts himself on foreign affairs. He’s going to be neutral with Israel. He said ‘I’m really good at that stuff.’ He’s actually terrible.”

But wouldn’t Nunberg want to work in Trump’s White House?

“Would I want to work in the White House?” he asked, repeating my question. “Of course I would.”

But Nunberg says he’s moved on from Trump’s inner sphere.

“I don’t have any sour grapes about that at all,” he said of the time he spent with Trump. “It hurt, but I’ve moved on. He’s not beating Hillary Clinton.”

[dcquiz] Nunberg believes the story about Cruz’s alleged extramarital affairs in the National Enquirer is total crap. “I think the story in the Enquirer is completely false,” he said. “I don’t even want to talk about it.”

Moving on to more reasons why he dumped Trump. “So the KKK, David Duke interview, and then he’s threatening violence at the convention. I’m actually happy Corey [Lewandowksi] is his campaign manager because Trump should have many more delegates than he has right now. He’s losing delegates by the day.”

As for being the “reporter whisperer,” Nunberg isn’t sure if he wants that title.

“I don’t know what that means, but if it’s good, it’s true. If it’s not good, I deny it,” he says.