Leaked audio of Ted Cruz slamming Trump sparks frenzy: 'He doesn't have the backbone'

Leaked audio of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) hammering both President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance was reported by Axios on Sunday and soon sparked an online frenzy, largely from critics who either found rare agreement with the Texas Republican or mocked him for making such remarks only in private.

The leaked recording was provided to Axios by a Republican source, and was recorded sometime last summer at a private donor meeting. In the leaked audio, Cruz is heard criticizing Trump’s tariff policy, insisting that the president would be “impeached every single week” if he stood behind his tariffs, and that the GOP would face an election “bloodbath.”

Political strategist Marco Frieri, a frequent critic of Trump and the GOP, expressed shock at Cruz’s remarks, writing that he’d “have to agree with Cruz on this one” in a social media post on X.

Rick Wilson, another frequent and fierce critic of Trump and Republicans, said he was struck by the sharp contrast between Cruz’s private remarks about Trump in private and his repeated praise of the president when in public.

“I did not have ‘Ted Cruz auditions for Never Trump’ on my bingo card for today,” Wilson wrote in a social media post on X.

During the 2016 presidential election when Cruz launched his first bid for the White House, the Texas senator was frequently critical of Trump, having called him “utterly amoral,” a “pathological liar,” and a “sniveling coward.” He has since become one of Trump’s most loyal supporters, something critics seized on as proof of his “cowardice” to openly speak his mind.

“A perfect illustration of Republican cowardice,” wrote Jonathan Dean, a Democratic candidate for Senate from Illinois, in a social media post on X.

“Of course they are secret,” wrote Jaime Harrison, lawyer and former chair of the Democratic National Committee in a social media post on X. “He doesn’t have the backbone to say it to Trump’s face.”