Texas politics never seems to run out of theater, and right now Ted Cruz looks like he’s warming up for the 2028 main stage with the subtlety of a fireworks display in a gasoline warehouse. According to Axios, the Texas senator is gearing up for another presidential run, and apparently the opening act of his platform is a very loud, very public clash with Tucker Carlson. Nothing says old school hawkish energy quite like unloading on the loudest isolationist in the movement while everyone is watching.
Cruz has been after Carlson for weeks. He’s poked him on social media, ribbed him at donor events, and gone after him in speeches. At this point, it’s practically a roadshow. The tension started building back in June when Cruz went on Carlson’s podcast and lit him up for opposing President Trump’s strike on Iran’s nuclear weapons facility. Then Cruz went after him again for criticizing Israel’s war effort in Gaza and complaining about U.S. aid to Ukraine. Afterward Cruz summed it up by saying, “On foreign policy, Tucker has gone bat-crap crazy.” There’s no mystery about how Cruz feels. He’s not exactly whispering.
Axios also reports Cruz accused Carlson of flirting with antisemitism after a soft-focus interview with Nick Fuentes. Cruz even used an October Republican Jewish Coalition event to label Carlson a “coward” and “complicit in evil.” Then at the Federalist Society convention he warned that Carlson had “spread a poison that is profoundly dangerous” by amplifying Fuentes, calling Fuentes “a little goose-stepping Nazi.” If subtlety were currency, Cruz would be bankrupt.
Carlson, never one to miss a chance for a jab, brushed the whole feud off with a quick shot of snark. He called the situation “hilarious” and added, “Good luck. That’s my comment and heartfelt view.” If Cruz was looking for a dramatic counterpunch, he didn’t get one.
Some of Cruz’s criticisms line up with Ben Shapiro, who also torched Carlson over the Fuentes interview. And Cruz is keeping the pressure on by addressing the Jewish Federations of North America’s General Assembly, a move that has hawkish GOP megadonors nodding with approval. RJC CEO Matt Brooks admitted, “It’s definitely getting noticed.”
Those donors backed Nikki Haley in her ill fated 2024 run against President Trump, and now they’re eyeing alternatives to JD Vance. Vance has distanced himself from Fuentes, calling him a “total loser,” but he’s still the early favorite, and crossing Trump’s White House is never a low risk play.
Cruz is behaving like a man gearing up for a national brawl. He is hitting the paid speaking circuit, dropping in on Miami-Dade Republicans and the Maverick PAC, cranking out a top ranked podcast and radio show, and using his Commerce Committee perch to charm business leaders who dislike Trump’s tariff agenda. Early polls still show Vance way ahead, which means Cruz is trying to revive an older vision of Republican foreign policy at a time when the base is more interested in the America First blueprint.
Cruz may get the fight he wants, but whether Republican voters feel like revisiting a neocon flavored primary is a very different question.
Leave a Comment