In a fiery exchange, US Senator Ted Cruz told President Donald Trump his policies would cost him elections and result in his impeachment for the next two years.
Leaked recordings from two private donor meetings show the Republican Senator sharply criticizing President Trump’s tariff policies and Vice President JD Vance’s foreign policy views.
The meetings occurred in the middle of 2025 and are the latest demonstration of what some saw as growing internal divisions within the Republican Party, as Cruz is widely expected to launch a 2028 presidential campaign.
The roughly 10 minutes of audio, released to Axios by an anonymous Republican source, captured the Senator from Texas expressing deep frustration with the Trump administration’s economic and foreign policy initiatives, particularly on trade and American interventionism.
In the recordings, Cruz repeatedly assailed Trump’s sweeping tariffs, warning donors that the policy could devastate the US economy and trigger major electoral losses for Republicans. He also claimed the economic fallout, combined with losing control of the House and Senate, could ultimately expose Trump to impeachment proposals from Democrats.
“Mr. President, if we get to November of [2026] and people’s 401(k)s are down 30% and prices are up 10–20% at the supermarket, we’re going to go into Election Day [and] face a bloodbath,” Cruz recounted telling Trump during a heated phone call in April 2025, following the rollout of new tariffs on multiple countries.
Later in the recording, Cruz told Trump, “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."
Several other Republicans joined Cruz on the phone call with Trump that Cruz explained “did not go well,” describing Trump as being in a bad mood. According to Cruz in the recordings, Trump responded to his admonition to back off the aggressive tariff policies with “F*** you, Ted.”
Cruz goes after JD Vance, Tucker Carlson
Across both recordings released to Axios, Senator Cruz repeatedly went after Vice President Vance, attributing his stances on anti-interventionist foreign policy initiatives to popular right-leaning podcaster Tucker Carlson, stating, "Tucker created JD. JD is Tucker's protégé, and they are one and the same."
Cruz also linked Vance and Carlson to internal administration battles over national security staffing. He claimed the pair were responsible for the removal of National Security Advisor Mike Waltz from influence within the administration due to Waltz’s hawkish stance toward Iran by lobbying for American intervention to destroy Iranian nuclear capabilities in June of 2025 - a stance Cruz also shared, and that was eventually adopted by President Trump.
“Waltz supported being vigorous against Iran and bombing Iran - and Tucker and JD took Mike out,” Cruz told donors.
The senator further alleged that Carlson and Vance were behind the appointment of Army veteran Daniel Davis, a vocal critic of US military aid to Israel, to a senior national intelligence role, a move that alarmed pro-Israel Republicans.
Throughout the recordings, Cruz presented himself as resisting what he described as an anti-interventionist faction within the administration that he believed was reshaping US foreign policy away from traditional Republican support for Israel and aggressive deterrence against Iran.
Cruz's office downplays White House rift
Despite the contents of the recordings, Cruz’s office moved quickly to downplay any suggestion of a rift with the White House.
In a statement, a Cruz spokesperson said the senator is “the president’s greatest ally in the Senate and battles every day in the trenches to advance his agenda.”
“Those battles include fights over staffers who try to enter the administration despite disagreeing with the president and seeking to undermine his foreign policy,” the statement continued. “Sen. Cruz is proud of those fights, his accomplishments, and his close relationship with the president. These attempts at sowing division are pathetic and getting boring.”
Carlson was reached out to by Axios for comment. Carlson replied that he “didn’t have anything to do” with the ousting of Security Advisor Waltz.
Members of President Trump’s and Vice President Vance’s offices did not respond to requests for comment from Axios.
The disclosures came as Republicans face a challenging political environment heading into the 2026 midterm elections, with internal tense disagreements over Trump’s tariffs, foreign intervention in Venezuela and Greenland, and party leadership increasingly spilling into public view. While the party continues to formally rally behind Trump, the recordings highlight deeper tensions among senior Republicans as they seek to balance loyalty to President Trump with concerns about electoral risk and policy direction.