Ted Cruz says the US is ‘winning the war’ with Iran right now, not losing

Republican Senator Ted Cruz says the United States has “unquestionably won the war” with Iran.

The conservative and firebrand senator from Texas told Fox News Digital that in his view, President Donald Trump’s “decision to take this military action is the most important decision of his presidency.”

“If you look at how our military carried out this action, it was an incredible accomplishment,” Cruz said in an interview this week. he emphasized.

But many Americans disagree with the senator’s interpretation of the nearly month-long U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran.

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Several new national polls released this week, including a new poll from Fox News, show that most Americans disdain military strikes. But polls indicate that a wide partisan divide remains between Democrats and Republicans over ongoing conflicts in the volatile Middle East.

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Military strikes by the United States and Israel resulted in the deaths of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other senior officials and the destruction of much of the country’s army.

However, Iran retaliated with attacks on Israel and many other neighbors in the region.

Iran has targeted energy facilities with missile and drone attacks in a number of Persian Gulf countries. It also made the Strait of Hormuz virtually impassable to commercial shipping; shut down nearly 20% of the world’s oil supply, resulting in skyrocketing fuel prices in the United States and around the world.

When asked about the ongoing operation, Cruz said, “We have disabled almost all of the air defenses. We have disabled short-range and medium-range ballistic missile launchers, missiles and missile production capacities. We have disabled UAV launchers, unmanned aerial vehicles and unmanned aerial vehicle production capacities.”

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“We carried out more than 9,000 military strikes. We sank 140 ships. This is the largest naval ship sinking since World War II, and on top of that, we eliminated the Ayatollah and almost all of the top military leaders. This is a profound victory,” the senator emphasized.

On the eve of the attacks, Cruz stated that he “spent the entire day with Trump” while the president was en route to Texas.

President Donald Trump shakes hands with Republican Senator Ted Cruz at a Whataburger restaurant in Corpus Christi, Texas, on February 27, 2026. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

“The day before he launched this military action, I was on Air Force One with him. He was flying to Texas, and then he and I were alone in the Beast, the presidential limousine, and we spent most of the day talking about whether he should initiate this military action or negotiate more.”

“I told him at the time that I said there was nothing to negotiate. The ayatollah was negotiating in bad faith and the regime was weaker than ever,” Cruz recalls.

The senator emphasized that “Ayatollahs and mullahs in Iran have been waging war against the USA for 47 years… Iran is the number one state funding terrorism in the world.”

According to a Fox News poll, a third of voters nationwide said U.S. military action against Iran would make America safer, while 44 percent said it would be less safe and nearly a quarter (23%) said the strikes would make no difference.

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Cruz disagrees.

“The president’s destruction of this regime has made America significantly safer, and that is his responsibility as commander in chief,” the senator emphasized.