Rick Santorum has dropped out of the 2016 presidential race and is throwing his .8% of support to Marco Rubio.

Meanwhile Ted Cruz, responding to Donald Trump’s freakout today, coined a new word: “Trumpertantrum.” Cruz jokingly suggested that Trump is so erratic that the American people might wake up one morning to find that The Donald had nuked Denmark. Skip to 1:10 for the first mention of Trump’s freakout, or to 3:30 for the specific remarks quoted below:

CRUZ: Oh listen, Donald’s insults get more and more hysterical the more upset he gets. And that’s fine. He can do that. I’m not going to respond in kind.

REPORTER: Do you think they’re funny?

CRUZ: I think they’re very funny. I think Donald — I wake up every day and laugh at the latest thing Donald has tweeted. Because he’s losing it. Look, we need a Commander in Chief, not a Twitterer in Chief. We need someone with the judgment and the temperament to keep this country safe. I don’t know anyone who would be comfortable with someone who behaves this way having his finger on the button. I mean, we’re liable to wake up one morning, and Donald, if he were President, would have nuked Denmark. That’s not the temperament of a leader to keep this country safe.

P.S. Ben Carson held a press conference where he kinda sorta not really accused the Cruz campaign of dirty tricks. Meanwhile, as the day has progressed, Trump has even suggested that he will file a formal complaint with Iowa officials. Because this will clearly be in the headlines for the next few days, and will come up at Saturday night’s debate, it’s worth looking at the way this story was reported on the night of the Iowa caucuses:

BREAKING: @moody has learned @realbencarson will return to FL following #IAcaucus, will not go to either NH or SC https://t.co/jl8NOY9KEx

— The Lead CNN (@TheLeadCNN) February 2, 2016

If you play the video, you’ll see Jake Tapper and Dana Bash explaining that every single candidate was going to go to New Hampshire except for Carson, who would go home to Florida “for several days” — and then would not go to New Hampshire at all. They also said he was going to be going to a prayer breakfast the following week. The two repeatedly called it “very unusual” and added that Carson was going to speak at 9:15 p.m. Eastern no matter what the results were. Bash said that this sent a strong signal to supporters that he wasn’t in it for the long haul.

This was a self-inflicted wound by Carson, and the Cruz team reported it to supporters. Steve King tweeted the following:

Carson looks like he is out. Iowans need to know before they vote. Most will go to Cruz, I hope. https://t.co/lW5Js50EMA

— Steve King (@SteveKingIA) February 2, 2016

And supporters were sent this message:

@trscoop oops pic.twitter.com/Jt248zXy5v

— jennifer (@jenilynn1001) February 2, 2016

Carson later said he was just going home to get fresh clothes (apparently delivery services do not deliver clothes from Florida to New Hampshire, and yes, that’s snark). The Cruz campaign did not immediately tell supporters that Carson said he was still in the race.

Carson outperformed polling and the idea that this sunk Trump is ludicrous. Allahpundit has much more.

My prediction: Trump’s whiny baby act will hurt him big. Some mud will slop over onto Cruz, who wasn’t destined to do well in New Hampshire anyway. The victor in all this is Rubio. He has from now until primary night to find another catchy phrase besides “Comeback Kid” for the press to latch onto to trumpet MARCOMENTUM!!!

Tomorrow: Trump’s contradictions (lies) on whether he was surprised by the inadequacy of his “ground game.”

Rand Paul has announced that he’s out. It seems a little odd for the libertarian to bow out right before the primary held in the state targeted for the Free State Project, where libertarians have moved in droves to create their libertarian utopia. But Paul reportedly thinks this move will help defeat Donald Trump, and God love him for it.

Meanwhile Trump, who shocked the media by not engaging in a bitter Twitter outburst after Iowa, has engaged in a bitter Twitter outburst this morning. Trump, who was praised for his gracious speech after losing Iowa, is now tweeting things like this:

Ted Cruz didn't win Iowa, he stole it. That is why all of the polls were so wrong and why he got far more votes than anticipated. Bad!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 3, 2016

Based on the fraud committed by Senator Ted Cruz during the Iowa Caucus, either a new election should take place or Cruz results nullified.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 3, 2016

Above: Donald Trump

Somehow I have a feeling this is not going to go over well with Americans. They don’t really like whiners.

@danieljpayne @allahpundit: Correction:

2/1: "I'm honored to be 2nd."
2/2: "Iowa is meaningless."
2/3: "I DEMAND A RECOUNT OF IOWA."

— Calex Quint (@CalexQuint) February 3, 2016

Hard not to see this morning’s outburst as Trump basically giving up on the nomination

— Allahpundit (@allahpundit) February 3, 2016

Meanwhile Trump sycophant and Dilbert creator Scott Adams, who had told everyone that Trump is a Master Persuader who is going to run over everyone, is absolutely not engaging in wild conspiracy theories over Iowa. He’s NOT doing that, you hear me?

I’m not saying the Republican caucus in Iowa was rigged. All I’m saying is that the result looks exactly like it was rigged, and the people who had the opportunity had the best motive in the history of all motives. You might say they had the mother of all motives and a few aunts of motives as well.

As I was having these thoughts last night, some folks on Twitter mentioned that Republicans were using a new Microsoft app to tally results. Apparently that system was a bit buggy. Microsoft provided the system for free.

Oh, and Microsoft is Rubio’s biggest donor.

Oh, and Donald Trump is a loser.

A loser who I thought was a lock to win New Hampshire, but seems to be collapsing quickly. Bad internal polls? Anyway, the next few days will be interesting.