I have lost all respect for Cruz. Trump shouldn’t have trusted him to do a speech. I am sure its a mistake that Trump will not make a second time. Trump makes a great friend—and a terrible enemy.
There are a lot of good people who supported Cruz. Not allowing Cruz to speak would seem like Trump not reaching out to them. I think most of his supporters will see Cruz for what he is now.
There are a lot of good people who supported Cruz. Not allowing Cruz to speak would seem like Trump not reaching out to them. I think most of his supporters will see Cruz for what he is now.
On the other hand, look at the bad press Cruz has received.
Trump gave him enough rope to hang himself. (He who signed a pledge to support the nominee.)
I don't think it was a mistake at all. IMHO, it was a calculated, strategic move, with very little downside. No doubt in my mind that Trump considered the possibility that Cruz would pull something like this. This isn't Trump's first rodeo with dishonest characters like Cruz.
Up Side Calculation: If Cruz gives Trump a full-throated endorsement, it's a big win for party unity. Trump looks gracious and statesmanlike. A uniter. He gives Cruz and his supporters a chance to save face and demonstrate their own graciousness and rise to the occasion with country-before-personal politics. Fence-mending and moving forward begins.
Up side Calculation Part II -- If Cruz betrays Trump, Cruz will out himself for what he is, live, on prime time national TV--just standing there, exposed in all his naked ambition. Classless, selfish, bitter. There'd be no denying it, no spinning it. Cruz would be finished. The party and America wins. No slow processes of healing or doing those diplomatic, gentlemanly dances. The bandaid is ripped off in one swift movement, by Cruz himself, and painful though it is for the party for that moment, its over.
For Trump, the cost benefit ratio was a no brainer. It's just further evidence that this guy is playing on a level far, far above the heads of the political class.