Firebrand Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has implored his party to wake up to the dangers posed by an estimated seven million people turning out in protest against the Donald Trump administration.
“Unquestionably, we should take political peril seriously,” Cruz told Bloomberg Television. “There is a lot of energy. There is a lot of anger on the left. And elections can be dangerous when one side is mobilized, is angry.”
The ‘No Kings’ protests, which saw an estimated 2,700 rallies held in cities across the country and at U.S. consulates around the world, marked the fiercest display yet of popular opposition to Trump’s second presidency.
Protesters turned out en masse to demonstrate against the White House with banners, chants, placards, and even costumes, to take shots at the administration’s nationwide immigration crackdown.
Demonstrators were angry at National Guard deployments, centralization of executive power, weaponization of the judicial system, crackdowns on anti-MAGA speech, and alleged cronyism.
Trump’s office has largely shrugged off the Saturday demonstrations, posting memes of the president and Vice President JD Vance adorned in crowns as a not-so-subtle jibe at the protest movement. But Cruz thinks the historic outpouring of public resentment should not be taken lightly.
“Energized voters show up to vote,” Cruz said on Monday. “And I do worry about just ordinary voters who are happy or complacent who say, ‘gosh, Trump won. Things are good. I don’t need to show up and vote.’ There’s no doubt if one side shows up and the other doesn’t, that leads to a bad election.”
It’s not the first time Cruz has openly criticized the MAGA administration, warning in April 2025 that Trump’s trade war against much of the rest of the planet would likely result in significant job losses, threatening to turn the 2026 midterms into a “bloodbath” for Republicans.
He hit out against the Federal Communications Commission, chaired by Trump appointee Brendan Carr, in September, warning conservatives would come to regret the agency’s threats against broadcast networks over comments made by late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel in the aftermath of far-right activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
He’s also not the only top GOP official to have issued a dire forecast for next year’s elections in the aftermath of Saturday’s demonstrations.
In an interview with Semafor published Monday, Trump’s usually loyal Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene warned Republican inaction over the government shutdown would bolster support for Democrats.
“I can’t see into the future, but I see Republicans losing the House if Americans are continuing to go paycheck-to-paycheck,” she said. “They’ll definitely be going into the midterms looking through the lens of their bank account.”
“The Republican Party is failing,” she added.
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