Secret recordings reveal Ted Cruz trashing Trump and Vance

U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) drinks a Dr. Pepper at a Q&A following a tour of the OpenAI data center in Abilene, Texas, U.S., September 23, 2025. REUTERS/Shelby Tauber/Pool

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) was secretly recorded trashing President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, Axios reported Sunday morning.

According to the report, Cruz spoke to Republican donors in two meetings last year. The combination of the recordings is nearly ten minutes, talking about himself as a "traditional free trade, pro-interventionist Republican."

Axios characterized the recordings as "some of the harshest criticisms of Trump and Vance by a fellow Republican since they took office a year ago.

After Trump's tariffs in early April 2025, Cruz said that he and a few other senators had a call with him, trying to get him to stand down. He conceded it "did not go well" as the call stretched past midnight. Trump was "yelling" and "cursing."

"Trump as in a bad mood," he said. "I've been in conversations where he was very happy. This was not one of them."

He told donors that he tried to explain, "Mr. President, if we get to November of [2026] and people's 401(k)s are down 30% and prices are up 10–20 percent at the supermarket, we're going to go into Election Day, face a bloodbath."

"You're going to lose the House, you're going to lose the Senate, you're going to spend the next two years being impeached every single week," Cruz added.

Trump replied: "F— you, Ted."

Cruz also dealt several blows to Vance, calling him a "protégé" of disgraced former Fox News host Tucker Carlson. He said that it was Carlson who "created" Vance.

He noted that it was Carlson and Vance who got rid of Mike Waltz from the administration, after the ex-congressman resigned from office to join the administration at the Pentagon.

Cruz said that Waltz "supported being vigorous against Iran and bombing Iran — and Tucker and JD took Mike out."

Carlson told Axios that it isn't true.

The recordings were handed over by a Republican source.

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