Have you endorsed Donald Trump? A handy guide.

Dear NeverTrumpers:

It looks like there is a lot of confusion among y’all about what the word “endorsement” means:

I happen to work at Vox.com, a popular internet website dedicated to explaining things. So I am going to explain endorsements to you.

Sometimes when you make a career in politics or talking about politics, people start caring about what you think. This is a good thing for you!

Sometimes they care so much that when there’s an upcoming election, they ask you who you think should win the election. This is an even better thing! It means you have the potential to help the people you want to see elected get elected. Good job!

When you answer this question — when you tell the public who you hope wins the election — that is called an endorsement.

You don’t have to literally say the word. You don’t have to say, for example — just to pick a name out of the sky — “I endorse Donald Trump.” You can say, “I support Donald Trump.” You can say, “I’ll be voting for Donald Trump.” You can say, “I support our party’s nominee.”

All of those mean the same thing: When the ballots are counted in November, you hope Donald Trump has the majority — or, at worst, plurality — of them. All of those are endorsements.

So that Jennifer Rubin tweet is exactly as incoherent as it looks.

A good rule of thumb would be that when the candidate himself thinks it’s an endorsement … it’s an endorsement.

An even better rule of thumb is that when the endorser’s own staff thinks it’s an endorsement … it is definitely an endorsement.

I hope this has cleared some things up for you.