As per an Axios report, Cruz made the claim during a private meeting with donors.
“Cruz also told the donors about ‘battling’ the White House to accept a trade agreement with India. When a donor asked who in the administration was resistant to reaching such accords, Cruz named White House economic adviser Peter Navarro, Vance and ‘sometimes’ Trump,” Axios reported.
US President Donald Trump, however, recently expressed confidence about the India–US Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) while speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.
“I have great respect for your Prime Minister. He’s a fantastic man and a friend of mine, and we are going to have a good deal,” Trump told Moneycontrol when asked about the India–US trade deal.
The trade agreement, formally proposed in February following directives from the leadership of both nations, aims to more than double bilateral trade from the current USD 191 billion to USD 500 billion by 2030. Talks were first announced during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington in February 2025, with several rounds of discussions held since.
What else Cruz said in the leaked meeting
Meanwhile, Axios claimed it obtained about 10 minutes of recordings from Cruz’s meeting with donors. According to the report, the senator warned donors that Trump’s tariffs could severely damage the economy and potentially lead to impeachment. Cruz said that after Trump introduced the tariffs in early April 2025, he and several other senators held a call with Trump, urging him to reverse course. The call, which reportedly extended past midnight, “did not go well,” with Cruz claiming Trump was “yelling” and “cursing.”
“Trump was in a bad mood,” Cruz told donors. “I’ve been in conversations where he was very happy. This was not one of them.”
Cruz said he warned Trump: “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 facing a bloodbath.”
“You’re going to lose the House, you’re going to lose the Senate, and you’re going to spend the next two years being impeached every single week,” he added.
When a questioner mentioned “Liberation Day” — Trump’s branding for the tariffs rollout — Cruz joked, “I’ve told my team if anyone uses those words, they will be terminated on the spot. That is not language we use.”
Cruz repeatedly referenced Vance in the recordings, linking him to conservative commentator Tucker Carlson and accusing both of promoting an anti-interventionist foreign policy.
“Tucker created JD. JD is Tucker’s protégé, and they are one and the same,” Cruz said.
He also alleged that Vance and Carlson were behind the ousting of former national security adviser Mike Waltz, claiming Waltz was removed for supporting military action against Iran — a position Trump later embraced.
“Waltz supported being vigorous against Iran and bombing Iran — and Tucker and JD took Mike out,” Cruz said.
Vance, however, has publicly stated that he supported the bombings of Iran’s nuclear sites last June.
Cruz further claimed that Vance and Carlson influenced the appointment of Army veteran Daniel Davis — a critic of US support for Israel — to a senior national intelligence role, calling Davis “a guy who viciously hates Israel.” Cruz said he helped ensure Davis was quickly removed from the position.
Responding to the report, a Cruz spokesperson said 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. “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.”
Carlson, meanwhile, told Axios that he “didn’t have anything to do” with either the removal of Waltz or the hiring of Davis.