"Even though I have had areas of significant disagreement with our nominee, by any measure Hillary Clinton is wholly unacceptable," Cruz wrote Friday. "… Our country is in crisis. Hillary Clinton is manifestly unfit to be president, and her policies would harm millions of Americans. And Donald Trump is the only thing standing in her way."

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Uh huh.

Cruz's move is a tricky one, fraught with potential political peril. On the one hand, if you want to be your party's presidential nominee in four or eight years, you almost certainly have to support the party's nominee now. On the other hand, when you have all but suggested that said nominee is a deranged psychopath, endorsing him runs the risk of being seen as a transparently political move that undermines Cruz's "principled conservative" brand.

Cruz's endorsement was widely panned by his backers and former staffers. There was this from former Cruz presidential adviser Rick Tyler:

And Steve Deace, a conservative radio show host in Iowa and a prominent Cruz backer, blasted Cruz on Twitter.

Cruz is no dummy and had to know, given his checkered history with Trump, that an endorsement of the Republican nominee might not sit well with lots and lots of Republicans. For Cruz, the gamble is that by publicly declaring both his support for and doubts about Trump, he can please both the most loyal supporters of the nominee and the #NeverTrump movement — thus preserving his viability as a presidential candidate in 2020 or 2024.

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Maaaaaybe. In truth, Cruz had backed himself into a corner; on one side were his attacks on Trump and on the other stood his ambition to run for president again. And everyone knows that when you are backed into a corner you roll over and play dead. Wait, no. But you get the idea.