Try this one.
If Cruz is the nominee, then the JustUs department files an emergency brief contesting his NBC status. Along with their willing co-conspirators in the MSM it grows legs. If you think the left is not going to use that then dream on. If he picks Rubio as a running mate, same thing because of his Anchor Baby status.
Now, with a Constitutional crisis looming on that with Cruz essentially Borked, now it is time to indict Hillary and take her out too.
Under the cover of the executive orders he signed upon entering office, he declares a Constitutional crisis and essentially nullified and terminates the elections under his authority of Martial Law.
The transformation will then be complete. He is just not going to willingly walk away from that airplane.
If it comes to what you describe, things could get quite ugly. But I'm still behind Ted.