Long-simmering tensions between President Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz are boiling over, with White House allies convinced that the Texas Republican is aiming to boost his 2028 presidential prospects at the expense of Vice President JD Vance.
Cruz has raised hackles by positioning himself against Trump — and, by extension, Vance — on several key issues, three people with knowledge of the situation told NBC News.
“Clearly everything Ted has been doing for the last year has been calculated with his eyes toward 2028,” a person close to the White House said, assessing Cruz’s motivations. The person, like others, was granted anonymity to speak candidly.
“He’s doing this dance where he won’t say anything bad publicly about Trump or Vance specifically but he’s doing things to position himself to the right, and he’s not doing a good job concealing it,” they added.
The irritation dates to the earliest days of Trump’s second term, when Cruz unsuccessfully sought unilateral subpoena power in his role as chair of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. The move would have given Cruz broad authority to bring administration officials and Big Tech executives friendly with Trump and Vance before his panel.
In recent months, Cruz has clashed with the Trump administration over free speech issues and with Tucker Carlson, the influential conservative commentator with close ties to Vance.
Three people granted anonymity to share details of private conversations say Cruz also opposed Vance and others who recommended Trump’s recent renomination of Jared Isaacman to lead NASA.
White House frustrations with Cruz were first reported by NOTUS.
A Cruz spokesperson described the senator, who was runner-up to Trump for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, as “the point of the spear” for advancing Trump’s agenda, noting among other initiatives Cruz’s sponsorship of the No Tax on Tips Act.
“For the past decade, Sen. Cruz has consistently been President Trump’s strongest ally in the Senate,” the spokesperson said. “Sen. Cruz and President Trump are very good friends, and no amount of sniping from disgruntled anonymous staffers trying to score political points is going to change that.”
White House spokespeople did not respond to a request to comment for this article. But Trump also characterized the relationship as friendly when asked about Cruz’s 2028 prospects this week.
“I mean, I haven’t spoken to him, but it’s a little early,” Trump told reporters Monday in the Oval Office, praising Cruz on the one hand while savoring his victory over him on the other. “He’s a very good friend of mine. You remember, we had quite a campaign against Ted, and it worked out quite nicely. Let’s see, where are we? Oh, we’re in the Oval Office.”
For the moment, Trump’s aides and allies are carrying the grudges for him.
Cruz, working through his staff, “has consistently worked to stifle the administration, while claiming ignorance,” a person close to the White House said.
This person added, channeling Trump’s nickname of Cruz from the 2016 primaries: “Once Lyin’ Ted, always Lyin’ Ted, and everyone sees his game.”
The unilateral subpoena issue “really pissed people off in the White House,” said another person close to the administration. Cruz also was among the early Republican critics of Trump’s tariff policy.
Neither Cruz nor Vance has announced plans to run for president in 2028. Trump, who is constitutionally barred from serving a third term, has not endorsed a successor but has identified Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio — like Cruz, a vanquished 2016 rival — as potential heirs to his MAGA movement. Early polls of the prospective 2028 field peg Vance as the GOP front-runner. And Trump is sharing a modest but notable portion of his fundraising proceeds with him.
As Trump’s vice president, Vance has been careful not to get too far and disloyally off script from Trump. Cruz, operating from outside the administration, has fewer political constraints. He is also a known advocate on free speech issues and a critic of Big Tech — long-held positions that have informed the fights he has picked with the administration.
“Big Tech censorship poses a serious threat to free speech in the U.S., and my Committee has previously uncovered evidence of these platforms using vague terms of service agreements to silence conservative voices,” Cruz said in July, when he reintroduced legislation targeting companies like Slack and Eventbrite.
Cruz’s pushback on the White House has escalated since September. He criticized Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr for threatening to police remarks that late-night host Jimmy Kimmel made about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk — and has scheduled an FCC oversight hearing for next month, with Carr as a witness.
Meanwhile, the Isaacman renomination has surfaced as a major tension point.
Cruz had favored keeping NASA under the leadership of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who has been serving as the agency’s acting administrator, the three people familiar with the nomination process said. White House officials were surprised and upset this week when Cruz scheduled a new confirmation hearing for Isaacman, these people added. Isaacman had a hearing in April, before Trump withdrew his nomination in the midst of a feud with Elon Musk, an Isaacman ally. The White House had expected he would move immediately to a confirmation vote.
“Cruz has gone out of his way to throw a wrench in the process, which has pissed off the White House,” one of the people familiar with the process said, adding that they believe the episode spoke to Cruz’s desire to tangle with Vance.
A person close to Isaacman’s confirmation process blamed the delay on the unique situation of being nominated, having that nomination pulled by the White House, and then being nominated again, causing the process to reset.
Cruz’s public attacks on Carlson have perhaps invited the most speculation about his 2028 intentions, given how the attacks have served to call attention to Vance’s relationship with the MAGA-friendly podcaster and former Fox News star.
In recent speeches to Jewish audiences, Cruz has warned of a rise in antisemitism on the political right and criticized Carlson for hosting on his show Nick Fuentes, an activist who has espoused white supremacist ideology and said he believes the Holocaust was “exaggerated.”
“Sen. Cruz has not hesitated to call out antisemitism wherever it appears, including within his own party,” Jason Wuliger, chair of public affairs for the Jewish Federations of North America, said when introducing the senator at an event the organization hosted this week. “At a time when many of us in the Jewish community feel like the walls are closing in, with the rise of anti-Jewish hate increasing on both sides of the aisle, allies like Sen. Cruz have been in short supply, and he speaks up in impactful ways in influential places.”
Carlson’s interview with Fuentes has become a flashpoint among Republicans balancing their support for free speech against their support for Israel. Vance, in an interview last year with CBS News, called Fuentes a “total loser.” Trump, who was criticized for dining with Fuentes in 2022, defended Carlson when speaking with reporters Sunday.
“We’ve had some great interviews with Tucker Carlson, but you can’t tell him who to interview,” Trump said.
Carlson, in a text message to NBC News, said he has found Cruz’s focus on him to be “hilarious.”
“Can you get elected president by running against a podcaster? It’s amusing but mostly it’s revealing of the Republican donor class, which is feeding that buffoon’s ego,” Carlson added. “Pathetic. As for what happens in two years, God knows. Things are changing so fast, I’m bewildered.”
