Ted Cruz stood on a Wall Street Journal stage Wednesday and told the world Trump personally called him about the Supreme Court three separate times.
He said no each time – and he needs you to know that.
What nobody at that event asked is why a senator who keeps announcing his own humility is also the one keeping his name in the conversation.
Cruz Told Tucker Carlson He Entered the Senate as Israel's Leading Defender
The exchange happened on Tucker's show in June 2025.
Carlson pressed Cruz on his AIPAC donations and his foreign policy priorities.
Cruz did not hedge.
"When I came into the Senate I resolved that I was going to be the leading defender of Israel," Cruz said.
Not a leading defender. The leading defender.
Not of America but of a foreign government.
America First means exactly what it says. It does not mean a senator who walks into the job with a pre-arranged loyalty to another nation's interests.
Cruz has a decently strong conservative record on the Second Amendment, religious liberty, and the southern border.
Nobody is taking that away from him.
But the Supreme Court is not the Senate Judiciary Committee.
A justice rules on international treaties, foreign sovereign immunity cases, trade agreements, and military authorization disputes with direct implications for American foreign policy.
Cruz went on the record – to Tucker Carlson, in front of millions of America First voters – declaring that his mission in public service is to be the leading defender of a foreign government.
That statement follows him onto the bench for life.
The Goldman Sachs Problem Nobody at That WSJ Event Will Name
Cruz's wife Heidi is a managing director at Goldman Sachs.
Not a former employee. Not an alumni luncheon speaker. A current managing director drawing a Goldman Sachs paycheck while her husband courts a seat on the highest court in the country.
Goldman Sachs has direct financial interests in securities law, trade policy, financial regulation, and antitrust enforcement.
The Supreme Court rules on all of it.
Democrats spent four years trying to run Clarence Thomas off the bench over his wife Ginni's political activities.
Ginni Thomas ran a conservative consulting firm and attended a rally.
Heidi Cruz manages money for one of the most powerful investment banks on Wall Street. The conflicts follow Cruz into every case, every term, for as long as he sits.
The recusal demands would begin before his confirmation hearing ended.
Every Goldman-adjacent case would carry an asterisk. Every antitrust decision touching Wall Street firms would put Cruz's name in the headline instead of the legal merits. Every securities ruling would become a legitimacy fight Chuck Schumer and AOC run for the next decade.
This is not a problem you manage with a strong communications team.
Trump put three justices on the bench because those picks were clean – no built-in attack lines, no excuses for nervous Republicans to walk away. Barrett, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh all took incoming fire. None of them arrived handing the Left a loaded weapon on day one.
Cruz arrives with two.
Should a justice step down – and it’s not clear any will or even should – the window to confirm a new justice before the midterms may be the last opening this political cycle. Kalshi traders give Democrats even odds or better to retake the Senate in November. If that happens, Trump's shortlist goes in a drawer.
Every Republican vote in that confirmation fight counts.
A senator who goes on a Wall Street Journal stage to announce that Trump called him about the Supreme Court three times – and positions himself as reluctantly available – is not removing himself from consideration.
He is auditioning.
America First does not mean first after Wall Street.
America First does not mean first after a foreign government.
The pick has to be someone nobody can question. Cruz is not that man.
Sources:
- Josh Marcus, "Ted Cruz Claims Trump Spoke to Him 'Seriously' About Filling a Supreme Court Vacancy," The Independent via Yahoo News, April 16, 2026.
- "Donald Trump Praises Samuel Alito, Prepared for New Supreme Court Nominee," The Hill, April 2026.
- "Ted Cruz Cites Genesis 12:3 as 'Personal Motivation' for Supporting Israel in Heated Tucker Carlson Interview," The Christian Post, June 19, 2025.
