In a move that surprised many Republicans, but few political insiders, Senator Ted Cruz was expected

to announce on Friday and did that he would support Donald Trump's bid for the presidency

against Hillary Clinton. For weeks, members of the Cruz team had been hinting at such an announcement.

Cruz himself had quietly hinted he was reconsidering his publicly non-committal stance on the

candidate who labeled him, Lion Ted, suggested he was a serial adulterer, called his wife ugly, and said his father was a conspirator in the murder of JFK, a man Cruz himself had called a pathological liar and a non-conservative charlatan. But on Friday, two days before the first debate, Politico broke the news that Cruz would endorse Trump. It's a bad, if understandable, political move.

Here are the things you need to know.

First, Cruz has experienced more pressure than anyone else in America over Trump, except for maybe me.

Cruz has been hammered by former allies in the media and the Republican Party for not openly

embracing Trump and bowing before his great God king.

That criticism existed before the RNC.

It escalated dramatically in the days afterward.

More on that in a second.

Cruz's donors shied away from him.

Some of his biggest boosters in talk radio began ripping him regularly.

The RNC chairman, Reince Prebus, or Prince Regis, as a friend, calls him, openly threatened

his future presidential prospects.

Trump and his allies suggested primary in the Texas Senate race, which put Cruz in a rough

spot politically.

With a few words, he thought it could end all the pressure.

The calculation was that simple.

And I guess it deserves at least a little bit of sympathy he is a politician.

Second point, this is a pretty bad political move.

...