In quite possibly the most North Korean move yet, team Trump declared victory in the North Dakota delegate count even though the TedNado sliced through them like a hungry shark with warm knife teeth through melty butter.

Just an awful day for the Trump delegate operation in North Dakota. Imagine if Bennett hadn't shot his mouth. — Patrick Ruffini (@PatrickRuffini) April 3, 2016

Here’s what Bennett said just yesterday:

Trump senior adviser Barry Bennett told NBC News that Cramer’s endorsement is “a huge win” for the campaign, and said he had “helped us immensely” to court delegates in North Dakota. Cramer’s help, Bennett said, contributed to a slate of national delegates proposed by North Dakota GOP officials Saturday that the Trump campaign “loves.” “We have seen the slate and we love it,” Bennett said. “If we play our cards right we could do very well” when the full convention votes on the slate of 25 proposed delegates on Sunday, he said. Bennett said the Trump campaign could get close to half of the delegates when all is said and done, predicting they’ll have at least more than 10 delegates supportive of the candidate. He wouldn’t name any specific supporters because most had communicated that they’d prefer to keep their support private, for fear of backlash from opponents. But it was a good day for Trump in North Dakota. “We’re popping champagne,” Bennett said.

Yeah, I hope it was cheap champagne because they’re probably getting berated by a cheeto-faced toupee’d totalitarian right about now:

I mean Cruz's campaign took a 4-by-4 to the ND recommended delegate slate and rammed right through it with his own list. Pretty impressive. — (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) April 3, 2016

And yet, Corey Lewandowski is STILL declaring victory!!

Huge victory for @realDonaldTrump today in North Dakota. Thanks to @RealBenCarson and our team led by Ed Brookover. Welcome Rep Cramer !!! — Corey R. Lewandowski (@CLewandowski_) April 3, 2016







Well uh, good luck there I guess. He’s like a Michelle-Fields-beating Baghdad Bob!!

Anyway here’s what happened:

My informal breakdown: 20 Cruz/NeverTrump

2 Gov/First Lady

2 Unknown

1 Trump/Kasich/highest bidder#NDGOP16 — Patrick Ruffini (@PatrickRuffini) April 3, 2016

More from Politico:

Ted Cruz’s preferred candidates won the vast majority of convention delegates available in North Dakota over the weekend, taking 18 of 25 slots in the state in another show of organizational strength over Donald Trump. It’s still not clear how loyal all of Cruz’s slate will be if the Republican nomination heads to a contested convention in Cleveland, as several included on it told POLITICO they were only leaning toward Cruz, or simply opposed to Trump. But the result was bad news for Trump, who may need unbound delegates like those in North Dakota to lift him above the 1,237 delegate threshold to secure the GOP nomination this summer on the initial ballot. Only one of the 25 delegates selected Sunday has publicly signaled he might back Trump. “This is a catastrophic outcome for the Trump campaign in North Dakota,” said Jason Miller, a senior adviser to Cruz. “Just when you thought the Donald’s horrible, very bad, no good week couldn’t get any worse, it just did.” The North Dakota delegation has been heavily sought after because they are free agents from the first ballot in Cleveland, able to support Cruz, Trump or John Kasich. State rules do not, however, require to name the candidate they support before being elected — leaving their votes in question up until the convention in July.

AGAIN, the brilliant Ted Cruz and his awesome team out-organized Trump, who is supposedly a brilliant businessman.

In other words, Ted Cruz has won nearly every "unbound" delegate in North Dakota outright. Trump's team humiliated. https://t.co/zCPqXR5bcL — Jeff B., now with 50% more annoyingness (@EsotericCD) April 3, 2016

Was literally everything in the Trump campaign's boasts about North Dakota demonstrably false or just 80%? — Patrick Ruffini (@PatrickRuffini) April 3, 2016

Jason Miller is an adviser for the Cruz campaign:

Especially b/c the Cruz slate was only 23 names (compared to 25 names for the ND GOP slate) and b/c the NDGOP slate had party luminaries. 2/ — Jay Cost (@JayCostTWS) April 3, 2016

This has happened in state after state. Perhaps, we're missing the forest for the trees to say that the Cruz is "well organized." 3/ — Jay Cost (@JayCostTWS) April 3, 2016

And then there’s this: