'You're a Moron': Ted Cruz Becomes a Laughing Stock After Believing Sharks Were Swimming on California Highway

Ted Cruz started off his week by falling for the hoax of the century.

On Monday, August 21, the Texas senator was the subject of excessive mockery after he believed a fake photo of a shark swimming on a flooded highway.

"Holy c---," Cruz quote-tweeted Dan "Big Cat" Katz's sarcastic post about Hurricane Hilary hitting Southern California, which stated, "friend of mine out in L.A. just took this picture on the 405. And yes, all news and media outlets you have permission to use this. Wild."

Just three minutes later, the 52-year-old updated fans of the obvious: "I’m told this is a joke. In L.A., you never know… And everyone please stay safe from the storm or otherwise."

Social media users didn't hesitate to begin mocking Cruz, as many pointed out the handful of times the same exact edited photo had been used as an internet meme.

"Literally everyone but you knew," one person tweeted regarding the falsified image — which first began circulating in 2011 after Hurricane Irene hit Puerto Rico. The fish was originally extracted from a 2005 aerial photo of a great white shark following a kayaker, according to Snopes.

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"No way you thought it was real at a point," a second person stated in disbelief, as another user added, "thinking this is real should get you expelled from the Senate."

"You should be familiar with jokes, Ted — after all, you see one in the mirror every time you shave," a critic quipped, while someone said: "Wow, you're a moron."

"The fact that you believe this happened in California just shows how dumb you are," an additional individual admitted, while others called him "out of touch," "sad" and "dumb."

Cruz's laughable mistake comes after the intense rainfall hit Southern California on Sunday, August 20. The Category 4 hurricane fortunately weakened to a tropical storm by the time it made it on land, though flooding, as well as rock and mudslides, were reported across the affected region.

"Virtually all rainfall daily records" were broken by 3 a.m. PDT on Monday, according to the National Weather Service's Los Angeles branch.

The tropical storm was the first of its kind to slam the area in 84 years.