Republican Party Internal Politics

Axios obtained nearly 10 minutes of secret audio from two 2025 donor meetings in which Sen. Ted Cruz harshly criticizes President Trump’s tariff strategy and Vice President JD Vance, underscoring deep internal GOP rifts ahead of 2028. On the tapes, Cruz warns donors that Trump’s April 2025 tariffs could tank 401(k)s by 30%, push grocery prices up 10–20%, cost Republicans the House and Senate in 2026, and leave Trump 'being impeached every single week'—claims he says sparked a profane 'F**k you, Ted' response from the president during a late‑night call. Cruz repeatedly portrays Vance as a creation and proxy of Tucker Carlson, alleging the two pushed out then–national security adviser Mike Waltz for backing airstrikes on Iran and helped install Army veteran Daniel Davis, whom Cruz calls 'a guy who viciously hates Israel,' in a top intelligence role before he was quickly removed. The comments, far sharper than Cruz’s public posture, reveal him staking out a traditional free‑trade, hawkish foreign‑policy lane and positioning for a possible 2028 presidential primary clash with the more protectionist, less interventionist Vance wing of the party. The leak will fuel online chatter about a looming civil war inside the GOP over tariffs, Ukraine and Iran, and about how many Republicans privately fear Trump’s trade agenda could backfire economically and politically even as they stay publicly loyal.

Fox’s piece details how House Speaker Mike Johnson is managing a razor-thin 218–213 Republican majority after Marjorie Taylor Greene’s early resignation and Doug LaMalfa’s death, with four House seats now vacant and little short‑term help coming from special elections. Johnson says he has warned Republicans to avoid "adventure sports," "take your vitamins" and stay in Washington, while Majority Whip Tom Emmer’s office is telling members they expect them present "outside of life‑and‑death circumstances" to avoid surprise defeats on the floor. The article walks through the calendar of upcoming specials: a Jan. 31 race in safely Democratic TX‑18 that will almost certainly hand Democrats one more seat, and a Feb. 5 primary and April 16 special in New Jersey’s blue‑leaning NJ‑11, where Democrats are favored but GOP strategists see a sliver of opportunity given the district’s narrower 2024 presidential margin. With Democrats poised to gain at least one seat in the near term, every GOP absence or defection could decide votes on Trump’s agenda, impeachment pushes and shutdown brinkmanship, making member health, travel and discipline an unusually acute tactical concern. The story underscores how a historically thin House margin is turning routine scheduling and attendance into a constant power struggle, and why both parties are already gaming out how these specials could tip control before the 2026 midterms.