Tucker Carlson has shrugged off Ted Cruz’s weeks of blasting him as everything from “bat-crap crazy” to “complicit in evil” with a laugh.
The Texas senator is leaning into the feud in a bid to lay the groundwork for a 2028 presidential bid, according to Axios. Asked by the site about Cruz’s latest gambit, Carlson called it “hilarious,” adding: “Good luck. That’s my comment and heartfelt view.”
The snub arrives as the infighting around Carlson’s interview with Nick Fuentes has been splintering the MAGA universe. Cruz has positioned himself as the loudest critic of the former Fox News star’s sit-down with the white nationalist and Holocaust denier, hammering Carlson for what he describes as a dangerous drift in the movement’s foreign policy and ideological baseline.
Cruz is using the fight as a political springboard. According to Republicans who spoke to Axios, the senator is prepping for a 2028 presidential bid by carving out the role of traditional, interventionist Republican—an increasingly lonely lane in the Trump era. The strategy puts him on a crash course with Vice President JD Vance, a Carlson ally widely viewed as the early GOP frontrunner.
Carlson’s now-infamous Fuentes interview triggered the rift. Cruz has used it as a public cudgel, accusing Carlson of spreading “a poison that is profoundly dangerous.” In a late-October speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition, the senator labeled Carlson a “coward” and “complicit in evil.” At the Federalist Society convention in Washington, Cruz escalated further, calling Fuentes “a little goose-stepping Nazi” and ripping Carlson for giving him a platform.
Some of Cruz’s jabs have been echoed by The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro, who also torched Carlson over the Fuentes interview and accused him of polishing views conservatives should not embrace.
President Donald Trump, meanwhile, defended Carlson’s decision to interview Fuentes, telling reporters: “We’ve had some great interviews with Tucker Carlson, but you can’t tell him who to interview.”
Trump added: “I mean, if he wants to interview Nick Fuentes, I don’t know much about him, but if he wants to do it, get the word out, let him. You know, people have to decide. Ultimately, people have to decide.”
Fuentes promptly thanked him on X: “Thank you Mr. President.”
Cruz has not been deterred, pushing a message he sharpened in a statement to Axios: “We have a responsibility to speak out even when it’s uncomfortable. When voices in our own movement push dangerous and misguided ideas, we can’t look the other way. I won’t hesitate to call out those who peddle destructive, vile rhetoric and threaten our principles and our future. Silence in the face of recklessness is not an option.”
Cruz has been a supporter of the president but has split from him on several issues over the last few months, from tariffs to taking critical late-night comedians like Jimmy Kimmel off the air.
The senator’s attacks on Carlson are resonating with pro-Israel donors furious over his isolationist foreign-policy tack and his friendliness toward Fuentes. “It’s definitely getting noticed,” Republican Jewish Coalition chief executive Matt Brooks told Axios.
Cruz is also ramping up donor outreach, headlining events for conservative groups and leveraging his committee perch and podcast audience to expand his network. But he still faces a Republican electorate drifting away from the George W. Bush-era interventionism he champions—and toward the “America First” isolationism Carlson and Vance have helped mainstream.
Vance remains the early favorite in 2028. And while the vice president has aggressively disavowed Fuentes—calling him a “total loser”—Cruz’s bet is that the MAGA movement is fracturing enough to give him an opening.
Cruz did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast.
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