WASHINGTON — A torrent of mockery landed on Sen. Ted Cruz after Time magazine published his gushing blurb about President Donald Trump.

In an admiring 165-word essay, Cruz calls Trump "a flash-bang grenade thrown into Washington by the forgotten men and women of America. The fact that his first year as Commander in Chief disoriented and distressed members of the media and political establishment is not a bug but a feature."

Detractors, and Cruz has plenty, called it a nearly unmatched act of political humiliation for a man Trump branded "Lyin' Ted" in the primary, and whose father he'd accused of aiding in the Kennedy assassination.

But Cruz, more than most Republicans who've clashed with the president, has found a way to cheerfully turn the other cheek, working closely with the president on a host of issues. In his campaign for re-election, he has unabashedly wrapped himself to the president even as some Republicans keep their distance.

The blurb was part of the magazine's issue on the 100 most influential people, which hits newsstands Friday. It brought to mind a few aphorisms:

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

And in politics, it's helpful to have a thick skin and a short memory. And there are no permanent allies or adversaries.

Call me old fashioned, but if I were Ted Cruz and Donald Trump had personally branded me as a liar, suggested he had dirt on my wife, spread rumors that my father assasinated JFK, and was, you know, Donald Trump, I’d probably pass on writing his effusive TIME magazine blurb. — Matt Fuller (@MEPFuller) April 19, 2018

GQ called it "fawning" and a "humiliation." With his "once-promising" career having turned into a "sad, morbid spectacle," Cruz is now "stuck in a strange limbo, leaning into petty humiliations like this one in the hopes that proximity to the Oval Office might feel half as good as being [in] it himself."

A film critic for Indiewire called it "one of the most humiliating things ever written."

Another commentator predicted that this would come back to haunt Cruz "when Trump is no longer president and Cruz is almost certainly back to giving passionate speeches about how 'conservatism lost its way' in this period."

U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, Cruz's challenger in November, pounced, too, using Cruz's blurb as the basis for a fundraising blast.

"He refers to the man who attacked his family — and the administration that has undermined so much of the decency and dignity of public life — as 'great fun to watch,'" reads the El Paso Democrat's email. "As he stoops to bow to President Trump in the pages of Time, Ted Cruz reminds us that we can do much better."

Cruz shot back later on Twitter, ignoring all the sniping except O'Rourke's.

The contrast couldn’t be greater: Beto supports open borders, aggressive gun control & impeaching the President. In contrast, like most Texans, I’m glad for policy victories under Trump: low taxes, less regs & more jobs. And what’s “fun to watch” is the MSM losing their minds. https://t.co/x20JeMtMB1 — Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) April 20, 2018

"I'm glad for policy victories under Trump: low taxes, less regs & more jobs. And what's "fun to watch" is the MSM losing their minds," he wrote.

Senator Cruz, you write in praise of a man who defined you as a liar, deeply insulted your wife and accused your father of plotting the assassination of President Kennedy.

I respectfully ask, have you no shame? https://t.co/00Q1MEJcqj — Mika Brzezinski (@morningmika) April 19, 2018

The Cruz-Trump bromance has come full circle. Early in the 2016 primaries, before Trump became a juggernaut, Cruz kept him close, calculating that they were fighting for many of the same voters and Trump's chances of going the distance seemed slim.

Plus, it was helpful to avoid the Trump barbs that made quick work of "low energy" Jeb Bush and Rick Perry. Trump demanded that the former Texas governor take an IQ test to qualify for the GOP debates, but later named him energy secretary.

But as the GOP field narrowed, the gloves came off.

Trump invoked an unsubstantiated supermarket tabloid report to link Cruz's father to the Kennedy assassination. He threatened to "spill the beans" about the senator's wife. The senator called him "utterly amoral," "a serial philanderer" who publicly bragged about bouts of venereal disease, a "sniveling coward" a "pathological liar," and "a narcissist at a level I don't think this country's ever seen."

At the GOP nominating convention in Cleveland, Cruz was booed offstage for refusing to explicitly endorse Trump, instead urging Republicans to vote their conscience. Trump was not amused. Nor were Texas Republican activists. By September, a chastened Cruz had cooled off and come to heel.

Once Trump won and took office, Cruz became one of his biggest cheerleaders in Congress. He hasn't defended the president's more outrageous comments or moves. But he's kept any criticism to himself, unlike Speaker Paul Ryan, Sens. Bob Corker and Jeff Flake, Mitt Romney and other high-profile Republicans.

Still, the level of admiration expressed in the Time essay caught Cruz watchers off guard. For detractors, it was a windfall.

"The same cultural safe spaces that blinkered coastal elites to candidate Trump's popularity have rendered them blind to President Trump's achievements on behalf of ordinary Americans. While pundits obsessed over tweets, he worked with Congress to cut taxes for struggling families. While wealthy celebrities announced that they would flee the country, he fought to bring back jobs and industries to our shores. While talking heads predicted Armageddon, President Trump's strong stand against North Korea put Kim Jong Un back on his heels," Cruz wrote.

"President Trump is doing what he was elected to do: disrupt the status quo. That scares the heck out of those who have controlled Washington for decades, but for millions of Americans, their confusion is great fun to watch."

Not so, insisted O'Rourke.

"It's not been great fun to watch President Trump refuse to condemn the racist and dangerous behavior of Klansmen and white nationalists marching with torches in the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia." Nor for people facing his drug costs, or working Texans envious of "another massive tax cut" for corporations and the wealthiest, or for 200,000 Texas Dreamers "enjoying this presidency" as they cope with fear of deportation.