A new report citing leaked audio recordings of US Republican Senator Ted Cruz claims that Vice President JD Vance and White House economic adviser Peter Navarro played a key role in blocking a proposed trade deal between the United States and India.
According to Axios, the remarks were made by Cruz during private meetings with donors, exposing internal divisions within President Donald Trump’s administration over trade policy. Cruz also alleged that Trump himself “sometimes” intervened to stall the proposed US-India agreement.
The nearly 10-minute audio clips, obtained by Axios from a Republican source, dates back to early and mid-2025. In the recordings, Cruz sharply criticises the Trump administration’s tariff-driven trade approach, which he said has unsettled economies around the world.
The report comes when India and the US are engaged in prolonged trade negotiations.
Tensions escalated after the Trump administration imposed an additional 25 per cent tariff on Indian goods over New Delhi’s oil trade with Russia, taking total duties to 50 per cent.
In the recordings, Cruz presents himself as a traditional free-trade, pro-interventionist Republican, while distancing himself from Vance, whom he portrayed as aligned with conservative commentator Tucker Carlson. Cruz also recounted a tense late-night phone call with Trump in April 2025, shortly after the President announced protectionist measures. He said several senators urged Trump to reconsider the tariffs. “It did not go well,” Cruz recalled.
“Trump was yelling, cursing… Trump was in a bad mood. I’ve been in conversations where he was very happy. This was not one of them,” Axios quoted Cruz as saying.
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Warning of serious political consequences, Cruz said the tariff policy could severely damage the economy ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. “If we get to November of [2026] and people’s 401(k)s are down 30% and prices are up 10–20% at the supermarket, we’re going to face a bloodbath,” Cruz said, predicting losses for Republicans in both the House and Senate and sustained impeachment pressure on the White House.