By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Ted Cruz seemingly cannot even pull off a “photo op” without drawing criticism.

The Texas Republican junior U.S. senator has earned all of it … but, really?

He jetted off to Cancun, Mexico while Texas shivered in the midst of a hideous and crippling winter storm. He came home early after news of it hit the fan. He apologized for messing up, but only after seeming to blame his daughters for talking him into going to Mexico just to get away for a few days.

Then came the picture of Cruz loading bottled water; and he cut some barbecue to serve for firefighters in Houston. That’s all fine, except that the pictures looked like “photo ops.” A Cruz staffer snapped the pictures and then he likely was gone.

Ted Cruz under fire for ‘photo ops’ in Houston following controversial Mexico trip (msn.com)

Hey, he’s not the only politician who stages these do-gooder events for the camera. Donald Trump thought he’d toss rolls of paper towels in Puerto Rico to those who needed the paper goods; he did that for the camera, too … but it looked stupid. Remember the time 1988 Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis slipped a helmet over his head and then he rode around in the tank? It didn’t work well at all.

So, now we have Mr. Sanctimonious — Ted Cruz — trying to make up for his major mistake by pretending to load bottled water and slice some BBQ for the real heroes of the Texas winter storm.

Not a good look, Sen. Cruz. His photo ops turned into photo oops.