I am 100% positive that Trump has never believed that Cruz would endorse him. Cruz has excessive pride and it would have been absolutely impossible for him to overlook what he believed to be personal attacks on it his wife and father. Trump believes that this incident will work to his advantage and so far he has always been right about that kind of thing. Trump knew that Cruz would hurt himself. I think that Trump is secretly smiling.
You are exactly right. Trump reads people very well. And he understands ego and ambition and he practices “Family First”, ruthlessly, when he feels it’s warranted.
“I think that Trump is secretly smiling.”
Probably. Because:
1. Ted Cruz just destroyed himself politically.
2. The Cruz failure to endorse could make Trump look more moderate in the eyes of those independents and Reagan Democrats who already hate Ted Cruz for his putative hard-core “conservatism”.