In rare break with Trump, Ted Cruz warns tariffs risk sparking Republican ‘bloodbath’

Texas Senator Ted Cruz, usually a staunch supporter of US President Donald Trump, sounded the alarm on the administration’s move to ramp up tariffs, saying they posed “enormous risks” to the US economy and made Republicans vulnerable to a “bloodbath” in next year’s midterm elections.

Long-term trade duties would drive up inflation and wreak havoc on markets, Cruz said on his podcast, which was released on Friday as a deep sell-off hammered US stocks for the second straight day. The economic fallout could help Democrats reclaim the House of Representatives and possibly even flip the Senate, although that’s less likely, he said.

“It would destroy jobs here at home and do real damage to the US economy if we had tariffs everywhere,” the Texas Republican said.

Cruz’s critique echoes the doubts of four Republican senators who this week rebuked Trump by siding with Democrats to back a measure that would have terminated the president’s previous levies on Canada.

As markets tumbled on Thursday, a bipartisan group of senators – including Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley – introduced legislation that would require congressional approval for new tariffs. Cruz said on Thursday that he was studying that proposal.

Texas accounts for about 16 per cent of US trade, the most of any state, making it vulnerable to any downturn spurred by stepped-up tariffs, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.