Sen. Ted Cruz ridiculed for sharing years-old clip, claiming it’s from LA protests

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is getting roasted for yet another social media blunder — this time for retweeting a five-year-old video and falsely claiming it was shot during recent anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles.

As thousands of demonstrators took to the LA to protest against the Trump regime’s increasingly harsh immigration crackdowns, Cruz retweeted a clip initially shared by actor-turned-right-wing talking head James Wood. The since-deleted clip showed LAPD cruisers being set ablaze by protesters.

“This…is…not…peaceful,” Cruz wrote on social media platform X.

There’s just one problem: the clip was filmed in May 2020 during Black Lives Matter and George Floyd protests, according to news reports and X community fact-checkers.

Online commenters on Cruz’s post were also quick to draw attention to his error.

“This video is not from this year,” Democrat social media influencer Harry Sisson fired back. “This is blatant misinformation. Why are you lying? Delete this and apologize.”

Meanwhile, user @organizermemes told Cruz claiming the video from the LA protests is like “claiming you just abandoned your state for Cancun during a deadly storm.”

Ouch.

Although the clip has been removed from X, Cruz’s initial tweet referring to the LA demonstrations as “not peaceful” remains live.

Nearly 60 people were arrested in LA over the weekend as protests against arrests made by federal immigration authorities grew unruly. The situation has since calmed, according to CNN.

Nonetheless, President Trump has deployed 2,000 National Guardsmen to the area and has threatened to deploy active duty marines. Trump has also encouraged Border Czar Tom Homan to arrest California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who’s sued over the deployment, calling it an unnecessary overreach by the White House.

Progressive organizers are planning nationwide protests, including in San Antonio, on June 14.

Cruz’s social media misstep over the LA protests isn’t the first time he’s grabbed headlines by sharing erroneous images and video clips.

In 2023, Cruz got unwanted attention after retweeting a Photoshopped image of a shark swimming in the streets of Los Angeles during Hurricane Hilary, apparently assuming the image to be real.

Last year, he also caught flack for reposting content from an account with the username “Ted Cruz Sucks Balls.”

Cruz’s most infamous blunder came in 2017, however, after his account “liked” a pornographic someone had tweeted out.

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This article appears in May 29 – Jun 11, 2025.