--- title: Ted Cruz Refuses to Say He Won't Support Donald Trump description: Sen. Ted Cruz refused to say he will not support Donald Trump if he becomes the Republican nominee canonical: https://time.com/4313677/ted-cruz-donald-trump-republican-nomination/ author: NBC News article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-01T19:50:55.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:46:12.548Z article:section: Politics og:title: Ted Cruz Refuses to Say He Won't Support Donald Trump og:description: "What I'm going to do is beat him" og:url: https://time.com/4313677/ted-cruz-donald-trump-republican-nomination/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt858c6b9065ccd4ba/698891543c1639281a45d111/ed-cruz.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz speaks at the California Republican Party 2016 Convention in Burlingame, Calif., Saturday, April 30, 2016. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu) og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ted Cruz Refuses to Say He Won't Support Donald Trump twitter:description: "What I'm going to do is beat him" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt858c6b9065ccd4ba/698891543c1639281a45d111/ed-cruz.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Ted Cruz Refuses to Say He Won't Support Donald Trump > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME D.C. Brief: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition D.C. Brief is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. Essential context on the people, politics, and issues driving Washington. D.C. Brief goes beyond the Washington headlines to explain the politics, personalities and power dynamics shaping what happens next. 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It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=92eb1bab-d5c5-441b-bbf8-add33bab2258&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) by [NBC News](https://time.com/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News May 1, 2016 7:50 PM UTC  Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz speaks at the California Republican Party 2016 Convention in Burlingame, Calif., on April 30, 2016. Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz speaks at the California Republican Party 2016 Convention in Burlingame, Calif., on April 30, 2016. Jeff Chiu—AP by [NBC News](https://time.com/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News May 1, 2016 7:50 PM UTC Despite his relentless attacks against the Republican front-runner, Sen. Ted Cruz refused to say he will not support Donald Trump if he becomes the Republican nominee. In an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press”, Cruz was asked multiple times if his opposition to Trump meant he could not support him in a general election, yet each time, he declined to answer. “What I’m going to do is beat him,” Cruz asserted. According to the Texas senator, the stakes of this election couldn’t be higher. “If we lose this, we lose our country. We lose the Supreme Court for a generation, religious liberty is taken away, our kids are bankrupted,” he said… [Read the rest of the story from our partners at NBC](http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/ted-cruz-refuses-say-he-won-t-support-trump-n565526) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4313677/ted-cruz-donald-trump-republican-nomination/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4313677/ted-cruz-donald-trump-republican-nomination/"},"headline":"Ted Cruz Refuses to Say He Won't Support Donald Trump","datePublished":"2016-05-01T19:50:55.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:46:12.548Z","description":"\"What I'm going to do is beat him\"","url":"https://time.com/4313677/ted-cruz-donald-trump-republican-nomination/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt858c6b9065ccd4ba/698891543c1639281a45d111/ed-cruz.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"NBC News","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nbc-news/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt858c6b9065ccd4ba/698891543c1639281a45d111/ed-cruz.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz speaks at the California Republican Party 2016 Convention in Burlingame, Calif., Saturday, April 30, 2016. 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