Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) is facing fresh political turbulence on the right after leaked donor-call recordings revealed sharp private attacks on both President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance.
The remarks emerged from audio obtained by Axios and reportedly recorded during the first half of 2025, according to The Gateway Pundit. The outlet notes that the recordings, supplied by a GOP source, capture Cruz speaking for roughly ten minutes to donors, where he levels direct criticism at the administrations economic agenda and at Vance personally.
In the audio, Cruz portrays Vance as little more than an instrument of populist commentator Tucker Carlson, with whom Cruz has clashed for years over foreign policy and Israel. Tucker created JD. JD is Tuckers protg, and they are one and the same, Cruz told donors, a line that underscores his ongoing feud with Carlson, whom he has previously denounced as anti-Semitic and un-American.
Cruz also takes aim at President Trumps aggressive tariff strategy, warning donors that the policy could trigger economic pain and political disaster for Republicans. The Texas senator claimed that sweeping tariffs would cost the GOP its congressional majorities and open the door to a wave of impeachment efforts against the President.
He recounted a tense phone call in which he tried to raise these concerns directly with President Trump, only to be met with fury. Trump was in a bad mood, Cruz tells the donors. Ive been in conversations where he was very happy. This was not one of them.
According to Cruz, he cautioned the President that economic fallout from tariffs could devastate retirement accounts and drive up consumer prices. Cruz says he told Trump: Mr. President, if we get to November of [2026] and peoples 401(k)s are down 30% and prices are up 1020% at the supermarket, were going to go into Election Day, face a bloodbath.
Youre going to lose the House, youre going to lose the Senate, youre going to spend the next two years being impeached every single week. Trumps response, according to Cruz: F**k you, Ted!
The Gateway Pundit has previously reported that Cruz is positioning himself for a 2028 presidential bid, a move that would likely pit him directly against Vice President Vance. Axios has suggested Cruz would run on a neoconservative, interventionist foreign policy and an explicitly anti-Tucker Carlson message, in stark contrast to Vances more restrained, America First posture.
If Cruz proceeds down that path, he will be testing a strategy that has repeatedly failed in recent Republican primaries. Running anti-MAGA, Never-Trump type campaigns simply do not work in GOP primaries.
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