Cruz is astute enough to gauge how fed up conservative Republicans are. He knew he had some blemishes to work through. So, he developed a friendly relationship with Trump while the others were hostile. And Cruz drafted off Trump's appeal
He assumed Trump would fail or get bored, and he, Cruz, would inherit Trump's support. But Trump didn't drop out, and Cruz had to break loose.
But Trump was ready with lots of research. Maybe he never totally trusted Cruz to begin with.
It's a different possible scenario from yours, for sure. But it explains how Cruz could be showing signs of becoming unhinged. (embracing Beck is unhinged)
Totally plausible.
Embracing Beck seems crazy to me, too, but we may be in crazy-like-a-fox- here territory. Guess we’ll see.