On Friday, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz posted on Facebook that he will vote for Donald Trump. Here are some statements from that post:

“by any measure Hillary Clinton is wholly unacceptable—that’s why I have always been #NeverHillary.

If Clinton wins, we know—with 100% certainty—that she would deliver on her left-wing promises, with devastating results for our country.

Hillary Clinton is manifestly unfit to be president, and her policies would harm millions of Americans.

After many months of careful consideration, of prayer and searching my own conscience, I have decided that on Election Day, I will vote for the Republican nominee, Donald Trump.

Cruz knows “with 100% certainty” that Clinton, who “is manifestly unfit to be president,” would cause “devastating results for our country.” Yet it took Cruz “many months of careful consideration, of prayer and searching my own conscience” to decide that Trump might not be quite as bad as the certain catastrophe that is Clinton. This post by Cruz about Trump was not an endorsement; it was a denouncement.

The other reason—actually the first reason—that Cruz gave for his voting for Trump was that Cruz had promised to support the Republican. When does a politician say, “I am endorsing this guy because I promised I would support the party nominee”? Again, we have here the opposite of a true endorsement.

Is Cruz punking Trump, who does not seem clever enough to grasp the contempt and derision implicit in Cruz’s announcement? Perhaps. Nevertheless, I think it would serve Cruz to be more explicit, sometime soon, in expressing his contempt. He should state something like this: “Even though I’ve always known that Clinton would be a catastrophic president, it took me a long time to conclude that, of these two evils, Trump might be the lesser.”

Personally, I don’t think that Trump is the lesser evil. I think it’s a tie. (For my argument, see here.)

I don’t oppose my friends in their voting for Trump to block the Clintons. And vice versa.