Why Ted Cruz Surrendered to Donald Trump

Did Paul Ryan, the Speaker of the House, wake up on Saturday morning with the quiet satisfaction of knowing that Ted Cruz was finally on his side? Both men have said that they are supporting Donald Trump for President. Cruz took a little longer, and made a bigger production out of it. At the Republican National Convention, in July, he urged delegates to vote according to their “consciences,” and revelled in their boos. The morning after, at a breakfast for the Texas delegation, he said, “I am not in the habit of supporting people who attack my wife and attack my father”—Trump had done both, implying that he knew secrets about Heidi Cruz and that she was not as attractive as his own wife, and suggesting that Rafael Cruz might have been complicit in the Kennedy assassination. Cruz had added that his pledge, early in the primaries, that he would support the Republican nominee, whoever that might be, did not mean that he would “go like a servile puppy dog.” Instead, apparently, it meant that he would go like a shameless grandstander. On Friday, in a Facebook post, Cruz portrayed his endorsement of Trump as the result of a multi-month struggle, one that involved praying and “searching my conscience.” By that he may have meant searching for his conscience, and, having reassured himself that no such creature was to be found, or at least was not likely to jump out and interfere with his ambitions, he put his name down.