How Trump's hand-picked Liz Cheney challenger plotted against his nomination in 2016

Harriet Hageman, the Wyoming Republican House candidate lucky enough to receive former President Donald Trump's endorsement in his crusade to unseat incumbent Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), recently called the former commander-in-chief the "greatest president of my lifetime," reports The New York Times.

However, in 2016, Hageman was actually "part of the final Republican resistance to [Trump's] ascent," and attempted to strip him of his presidential nomination at the party's national convention. She also, at the time, described Trump as "the weakest candidate," and condemned him as "racist and xenophobic," writes the Times.

And although she has now completed that "not-so-unfamiliar" journey of former Trump critic to bandwagon supporter, it was not before that fateful convention in 2016. She attended as a delegate for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and reportedly participated regularly in conference calls "plotting the last-gasp opposition" to Trump. She, as well as her counterparts, argued Trump was a "cancer" on the Republican party, writes the Times.

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But when the time came, Hageman was ultimately one of only 12 to try and strip his nomination by voting in opposition of "binding delegates."

Trump is aware of both Hageman's support for Cruz in 2016 and her efforts to stop him; notably, however, that hasn't stopped the ex-president from clearing the Wyoming field in her favor. Read more at The New York Times.