❓WHAT HAPPENED: Recordings reveal Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) criticizing Vice President J.D. Vance as a creature of former Fox Host Tucker Carlson, as well as pushing back on President Donald J. Trump’s tariff policies.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Ted Cruz, Donald Trump, J.D. Vance, and Tucker Carlson.
📍WHEN & WHERE: Recordings from early to mid-2025, provided by a Republican source.
💬KEY QUOTE: “F**k you, Ted.” – President Donald J. Trump.
🎯IMPACT: The recordings highlight Cruz’s potential positioning for a 2028 primary campaign, as well as general dynamics within the GOP heading into the mid-term elections.
Secret recordings have revealed Senator Ted Cruz telling donors about his conversations with President Donald J. Trump on subjects ranging from tariffs to the mid-term elections to fresh impeachment proceedings, Axios has reported.
The tapes, almost 10 minutes long in total, feature Cruz casting aspersions on Vice President J.D. Vance, with Axios describing it as calling the VP “a pawn of conservative podcaster Tucker Carlson.”
“Tucker created JD. JD is Tucker’s protégé, and they are one and the same,” Cruz says.
Describing a phone call between President Trump and himself, Cruz detailed how the President was “yelling” and “cursing” at Cruz and other GOP lawmakers.
“Trump was in a bad mood,” Cruz said. “I’ve been in conversations where he was very happy. This was not one of them.”
The Texas Senator says he told Trump: “Mr. President, if we get to November of [2026] and people’s 401(k)s are down 30 percent 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.”
Trump’s response, according to Cruz on the tapes, was simply: “F**k you, Ted.”
Cruz also told donors that he had banned his staff from using Trumpian trade rhetoric, especially the phrase “Liberation Day.”
“I’ve told my team if anyone uses those words, they will be terminated on the spot.”
The recordings are believed to have been made in early and mid 2025, with the President’s conversation with Cruz dating back to April 2025.
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