There is one school of thought emerging that Donald Trump and his campaign team approved Ted Cruz’s speech last night knowing it contained no mention of an endorsement for the GOP presidential nominee. The argument goes that they hoped the convention would come together in shared disgust for Cruz for not honouring his pledge to formally get behind the primary process winner. Trump would, according to this view, be seen as a victim and most of those on the convention floor and many at home would in one fell swoop become committed Trump supporters.

Pretty clever, that Donald Trump, but I’m not buying.

What is more likely is well stated by Josh Marshall who writes:

…there is simply no way Trump’s and Priebus’s convention managers okayed that speech. No way. The fact that they allowed him on stage to give that speech will go down as one of the greatest organizational pratfalls in convention history. Whether Cruz got them to agree not to review the speech or whether he substituted another speech, I don’t know. But something very wrong went down there.

Those who think Cruz’s non-endorsement is a great thing for Trump are smoking something funny. As Marshall continues, “Cruz came into Trump’s house, Trumps party, and humiliated him.” Trump’s brand is domination, and he got dominated. It’s as simple as that.

Cruz’s game is clear. He is wagering that Trump fails badly in November, and that the party forgets Trump quickly in order to get behind the guy who most forcefully distanced himself from the mess, the guy who will be a real constitional conservative for 2020. If Cruz loses his bet and Trump wins, Cruz’s political career is toast, probably losing his Senate seat in two years.

All by itself the Cruz speech is not deadly. Trump can put things on a better path with a good speech tonight. But, just to be clear, Cruz stood up to the bully and did a little damage to the brand. As much as Cruz is one of the creepier people currently in politics, it took a lot to do that, and it sure was fun to watch.

Even more fun were the looks on the faces of the Trump children, confused and dazed at the thought that not everyone can be fully diminished by their daddy’s power and influence. I sure hope they can recover.