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 The endorsement by Bush, part of a Republican dynasty, is the
latest sign of how keen the party's establishment is to stop Trump,
fearing that his rhetoric on illegal immigration and national
security will cost the party votes at the Nov. 8 presidential
election.
Cruz, a U.S. senator from Texas, is a staunch social conservative
and a divisive figure in the party due to his willingness to
criticize the leadership and his prominent role in bringing about a
2013 government shutdown.
But he is still seen by party grandees and many Republicans in
Congress as preferable to Trump, a real-estate billionaire viewed as
straying even further from party orthodoxy.
"Republicans across the spectrum are realizing that to nominate
Donald Trump brings chaos to our party and potentially to our
country," U.S. Representative Trent Franks of Arizona told Reuters,
"and that any differences they might have had with Ted Cruz are far
less important than the danger of nominating Mr. Trump."
 In his customary style, Trump took to social media to register his
scorn, referring to the profligate spending by former Florida
governor Bush's well-funded campaign and associated political
fund-raising groups.
"I think having Jeb's endorsement hurts Lyin' Ted," ran a message on
Trump's Twitter account. "Jeb spent more than $150,000,000 and got
nothing. I spent a fraction of that and am first!"
Bush, who quit his campaign last month after a poor start to the
primary season, sent a fund-raising email on Cruz's behalf to his
supporters, urging them to help "overcome the divisiveness and
vulgarity" of Trump.
Cruz won the Republican caucuses in Utah on Tuesday but time is
running out for him to defeat Trump before the Republican convention
in July, and for Republican establishment figures to reassert
control of a party that is being wrested away from it by
rank-and-file voters.
Cruz looked on track to win all of the 40 Republican delegates from
Utah, although Trump won the 58 delegates up for grabs in Arizona,
partly due to his tough message on illegal immigration.
After Tuesday, Trump had 738 of the 1,237 delegates needed to win
the nomination, according to The New York Times. Cruz had 463.
"WRONG AND UN-AMERICAN"
On the Democratic side, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont won
in two out of three states that voted for the party's nominee on
Tuesday, but this made only a small dent in the lead held by Hillary
Clinton, a former secretary of state, who won Arizona.
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President Barack Obama echoed his fellow Democrats on Wednesday by
criticizing Cruz's call to "carpet bomb" Islamic State and for
renewed calls from Cruz and Trump to increase the surveillance of
Muslims in the United States after Islamic State suicide bombers
killed at least 31 people in Brussels.
To target Muslims in this way "is not only wrong and un-American,"
Obama said in a news conference in Argentina, "but it also would be
counterproductive because it would reduce the strength, the
antibodies that we have to resist the terrorism."
The Bush endorsement put pressure on Ohio Governor John Kasich, who
is struggling in third place in the Republican race, to drop out.
"Kasich was viewed as the only establishment candidate left," said
U.S. Representative Matt Salmon of Arizona, a Cruz supporter. "With
the quintessential establishment candidate now endorsing Cruz, it
makes Kasich irrelevant."
People in Kasich's campaign suggested the candidate was paying no
more attention to party elites than voters were, saying he planned
to survive to the convention and wrestle the nomination there.
In interviews, some Republican lawmakers and wealthy party donors
worried a Bush endorsement was no longer a game-changer.
U.S. Representative John Duncan of Tennessee said it would "make a
miniscule difference at most."
Cruz remains undaunted, and added Bush's name to a list of prominent
Republicans who had belatedly rallied to his cause, including Mitt
Romney, the party's unsuccessful 2012 candidate.
"Across the spectrum Republicans are uniting," he told the crowd at
a New York City campaign event.
(Additional reporting by Steve Holland, Susan Heavey, Susan
Cornwell, Jim Oliphant and David Morgan in Washington, Luciana
Lopez, Michelle Conlin, Grant Smith and Emily Flitter in New York;
Writing by Jonathan Allen; Editing by Alistair Bell)
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