Explosive leak: Who is stopping India-US trade deal? American Senator’s big allegations | India News

New cracks in Donald Trump’s administration were revealed with the leaked audio recordings of Senator Ted Cruz harshly criticizing Vice President J.D. Vance and mocking President Trump’s tax policy during private meetings with donors.

The recordings, obtained by Axios from a Republican source, were made in early to mid-2025 and lasted about 10 minutes. In them, Cruz, the Texas Republican widely seen as eyeing a 2028 White House bid, portrays himself as a traditionally pro-free trade and interventionist conservative while warning that Trump’s economic agenda could lead to devastating political consequences.

Cruz tells donors that Trump’s tariffs, announced in early April 2025, could “decimate the economy” and even lead to the President’s impeachment. He said he had a long phone call with Trump shortly after the announcement, in which he and several other Republican senators urged the President to reverse course.

The conversation went past midnight and quickly deteriorated, according to Cruz.

“Trump was in a bad mood,” Cruz says in the recording. “I’ve been in conversations where he was very happy. This wasn’t one of them.”

Cruz recalls warning Trump that Republicans would face heavy losses if voters’ retirement savings decline sharply and food prices rise significantly heading into the 2026 midterm elections.

“If we get to November 2026 and people’s 401(k)s are down 30 percent and prices at the supermarket go up 10 to 20 percent, we’re going to be looking at a bloodbath,” Cruz told Trump.

“You’re going to lose the House, you’re going to lose the Senate, you’re going to spend the next two years being impeached every week.”

Cruz said Trump responded angrily, yelling and cursing, then dismissed him with an expletive.

The senator also pokes fun at Trump branding the tariff as “Emancipation Day” and jokes with donors: “I told my team that if anyone used those words, they would be terminated immediately. That’s not the language we use.”

Trade policy features prominently in the record; Cruz describes ongoing efforts to pressure the White House to finalize a trade deal with India. When asked by a donor who resists such deals, Cruz points to White House economic adviser Peter Navarro, Vice President Vance and “sometimes” Trump himself.

Vance emerges as the central target of Cruz’s criticism. The senator repeatedly linked the Vice President to conservative commentator Tucker Carlson, accusing both of them of supporting an anti-interventionist foreign policy. Cruz has previously accused Carlson of anti-Semitism and hostility towards Israel.

“Tucker created JD. JD is under the tutelage of Tucker and they are one and the same,” says Cruz.

The records offer a rare look at private Republican opposition to Trump’s trade agenda and underscore growing ideological divisions within the party as it looks ahead to the 2026 midterm elections and the 2028 presidential race.