Secret Tapes Reveal Ted Cruz Bashed JD Vance and Warned Trump of ‘Bloodbath’ Midterms — And the President Told Him ‘F*ck You’: Bombshell Report

AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib

Secret recordings obtained by Axios show Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) criticizing both President Donald Trump’s tariff strategy as well as Vice President JD Vance to Republican donors.

The recordings — according to a report from Axios on Sunday — are from mid-2025, soon after Trump unveiled his “Liberation Day” tariff plan in early April. Cruz is heard telling donors in one record that he had a lengthy late-night call with Trump and other senators where they “urged him to stand down” on his tariffs.

That call “did not go well,” Cruz told the donors, with the president “yelling” and “cursing” at the GOP lawmakers.

“Trump was in a bad mood,” Cruz said.

He told the donors that he 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, [and] face a bloodbath.”

Cruz continued to warn Trump that he believed the tariffs would wreck the Republicans in ’26.

“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 to all of this? “F*ck you, Ted,” according to Cruz.

His criticism to Trump at least matched what he was saying publicly. Cruz warned in early April 2025 that he believed tariffs could be “terrible for America.” Wall Street was rocked by the president’s tariff plan initially, but has since shrugged off any concerns — the Dow Jones is up 28%, the S&P 500 is up 40%, and the Nasdaq is up about 50% since they all took hits last April.

The recording also showed Cruz trying to set himself apart as a different option to be the GOP presidential nominee in 2028. Cruz told the donors that Vance and his “anti-interventionist foreign policy” were being molded by Tucker Carlson.

“Tucker created JD,” Cruz said. “JD is Tucker’s protege, and theya re one and the same,” Cruz said.

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