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Your Guide to Washington and the World’s 2024 US Election Means
Republican Sen. Ted Cruz warned of the party’s potential “bloodbus” in the 2026 midterm elections if Donald Trump’s tariffs plunge the US economy into a recession.
The Texas senator also predicted a “terrifying” fate for the world’s largest economy if a full-scale trade war explodes and retaliation measures against Trump’s tariffs and US goods remain in the long term.
Cruz’s comments on his verdict podcast on Friday, a Trump alliance, was the harshest warning from members of the Presidential Party since his “Day of Liberation” taxation began defeating the global market.
Republican lawmakers are beginning to worry about Trump’s tariffs and the impact of their party’s outlook on the economy to control both Congresses in the 2026 midterm elections. Their concerns grew as Americans saw their stock market capitalization evaporate around $540 million in the two-day Wall Street defeat.
On Thursday, Republican Chuck Grassley introduced the bill to the Senate along with Democrats to reaffirm the congressional control of tariff policy. The proposed law has a mechanism for lawmakers to cancel customs duties at some point unless approved by Congress.
Support for the bill increased on Friday as Republican Senators Lisa Markowski, Mitch McConnell, Jerry Moran and Tom Tillis signed on as co-sponsors. The bill is likely to be more symbolic than anything, but it points to an increasing number of discrepancies within the Republican Party.
There were already signs of voter dissatisfaction this week. Conservatives supported by Elon Musk have lost Wisconsin’s state Supreme Court seat to a liberal candidate. Republicans also fell short of their 2024 results in two special House elections in Florida.
If Trump and retaliation tariffs remain in the long term, the US will “spite the recession, especially the recession, 2026, politically 2026. You may face a Democrat home and a Democrat Senate.”
Despite a 53-47 Republican majority in the Senate, “If we’re in the middle of a recession and people are hurt so badly, they punish the party of power,” Cruz said.
The Canadian-born Texans did not share the president’s assessment that tariffs would lead to a “booming economy.” Instead, Cruz said there could be a “huge economic boom” only if the US and retaliatory countries cut their obligations.
But if “every other nation on earth” hit the US with retaliatory tariffs, if Trump’s so-called mutual tax collection remains, “that’s a horrifying result,” the senator warned.
If the conflict between the US and its trading partners escalates into a full-scale trade war, it would “destroy jobs at home and cause real damage to the US economy,” Cruz said. It also “has a strong upward impact on inflation.”
