Ted Cruz calls himself “tough as Texas.” Why, then, did the Republican U.S. senator wrap his arms around Donald J. Trump, praise the man who once denigrated the senator’s wife and implied that his father had a hand in committing the crime of the 20th century, the assassination of President Kennedy?

All that took place Monday at the Toyota Center arena in Houston, where the president whipped up the cheering crowd and urged them to vote for Cruz, who is fighting for re-election against Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke.

I wanted to hurl when I saw it.

Cruz’s Texas toughness would have been more sincere had he told the president to stay the hell away, that he didn’t want or need his support and that he couldn’t forgive him for denigrating his wife and suggesting that his father — who Trump said was seen with Lee Harvey Oswald — might have been complicit in JFK’s murder.

No, instead Cruz put on the façade of phony fealty to Trump, who said he and Cruz had made up, that all was forgiven, that he really didn’t mean that Cruz was the biggest liar in the Senate — that the nickname “Lyin’ Ted” was being replaced by “Beautiful Ted” and “Texan Ted.”

Tough as Texas? Give me a break.

It turns out — at least the way I see it — that Cruz is every bit as much of the “sniveling coward” that he called Donald Trump when the men were competing for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination.

You are free to disagree if you wish. I just view political toughness a whole lot differently than what was on display in Houston.