U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, who’s weighing a 2028 presidential run, excoriated President Donald Trump in calls made to potential campaign donors, according to leaked audio obtained by Axios.
On Sunday, Axios published a report based on audio from closed-door meetings between the Texas Republican and a room of donors. Axios reports that in the 10-minute-long recording, obtained over two meetings and supplied by a Republican source, Cruz detailed a terse April 2025 exchange with Trump, which involved the senator warning that Republicans are likely to face a “bloodbath” in the midterms.
“[I said to Trump,] 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, face a bloodbath,” Cruz said, according to Axios. “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.”
“Fuck you, Ted,” Trump reportedly responded.
Cruz also went on to criticize Trump’s branding of his reciprocal tariff kickoff as “Liberation Day.”
“I’ve told my team if anyone uses those words, they will be terminated on the spot,” Cruz reportedly told donors in the recording. “That is not language we use.”
Cruz said he warned Trump that the tariffs could “decimate the economy” and lead to his impeachment.
Cruz told donors that, after Trump introduced the tariffs in early April 2025, he and a few other senators had a call with the president during which they urged him to reconsider. Cruz says the call, which stretched past midnight, “did not go well” and that Trump was “yelling” and “cursing.”
But Cruz also reserved criticism for Vice President JD Vance, whom he blamed, along with Tucker Carlson, for forcing out former National Security Advisor Mike Waltz.
“[Waltz] supported being vigorous against Iran and bombing Iran — and Tucker and JD took Mike out,” Cruz reportedly could be heard saying on the leaked audio.
In its reporting, Axios hints at a possible primary showdown between Vance and Cruz in 2028, which could be why Cruz is positioning himself in the audio as more hawkish than the vice president. Cruz also called Vance a pawn of conservative podcaster Tucker Carlson.
“Tucker created JD. JD is Tucker’s protégé, and they are one and the same,” Cruz reportedly said.
Cruz also reportedly commented on Trump’s mood in the phone call overall, which was less than upbeat.
“Trump was in a bad mood — I’ve been in conversations where he was very happy. This was not one of them,” Cruz can be heard saying in the audio, Axios reported.
When reached for comment, a Cruz spokesperson told Axios that 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 said.
The spokesperson 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.”
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