President Donald Trump offered praise for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) but stopped short of endorsing or supporting the lawmaker’s potential White House run in 2028.
“I would say that he’s very talented,” Trump said Thursday when asked about a Cruz bid during an Oval Office event. “He’s a very good friend of mine.”
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The president did not explicitly say he was encouraging Cruz to run or that he would support the Texas senator launching a presidential campaign.
“I think he might do that,” said Trump about a 2028 run. “He’s a talented guy.”
Cruz stoked questions about his political future this week when he claimed that the GOP has not automatically coalesced around the idea of Vice President JD Vance being Trump’s successor.
“I’ll certainly be part of the discussion,” Cruz told MS Now about a White House run.
Republican strategists told the Washington Examiner that Cruz has the opportunity to run as “a full-spectrum conservative” in 2028 even if Vance takes up Trump’s MAGA mantle.
“I presume he’ll be able to raise significant money, and he will carry the torch of the full-spectrum conservative movement,” said Matt Mackowiak, a Texas-based Republican strategist. “Whether there’s enough demand for him to be the nominee, you know, he’s at this point not a fresh face. He’s run before. He’s a well-known figure.”
Cruz finished second to Trump during the 2016 Republican presidential primary, which featured more than a dozen GOP lawmakers vying for the nomination.
He has since gone on to become an ally of Trump in the Senate, but has also put some distance between himself and the administration.
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Cruz warned against Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs, criticized Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr for retaliating against media outlets that criticized the Trump administration, and has fought with some MAGA-aligned figures over Israel.
“I think he has the ability of straddling different sides of the Republican coalition,” said Trevor Francis, a former Republican National Committee communications director. “I think he’s trying to figure out a way of keeping the coalition together rather than alienating different factions within the coalition.”
