Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz blasted what he called “right-wing socialism” within his own party, warning Fox News host Will Cain that Republican proposals for cash giveaways could steer the GOP toward electoral disaster.
“I consider myself very much a populist,” Cruz said on Fox News’ The Will Cain Show, adding that “the base that has elected me every time has been blue-collar workers.”
Cruz distinguished his version of populism from proposals to send direct payments to Americans, telling Cain, “Here’s the difference: the way to be a populist is not get in the [Sen.] Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) game of giving away free stuff. The way to be a populist is fight for the jobs of working men and women, fight for small businesses.”
In a separate post on X, Cruz wrote, “There are two answers to ‘right-wing socialism’: no and hell no,” arguing that socialism “has been a train wreck” wherever it has been implemented.
He also told Cain, “There are misguided voices in MAGA saying, ‘Let’s embrace socialism lite.’ You know what? If we campaign and say, ‘We’ll be just like the Democrats except not as a generous Santa Claus,’ that’s a path to losing.”
The proposal behind Cruz’s criticism
Cruz was responding to President Donald Trump‘s $5,000 “Trump Dividend” proposal, which the president unveiled during a Republican midterm convention speech in Dallas.
Trump told the crowd, “Because we’ve done so well and because our country is making so much money, only I can make this promise to you and here is my promise: if the Republicans win the House of Representatives and the United States Senate, I will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States of America for $5,000.”
Trump has said tariff revenue would fund the payments and estimated the total cost could exceed $1 trillion. Some estimates, including one from Sen. Bernie Moreno, put the figure at about $1.2 trillion.
Trump cannot unilaterally authorize the payments. Congress would have to approve the funding.
Moreno has pledged to introduce legislation creating the checks, writing on X, “I will get a bill ready so that we can get the Trump Dividend passed immediately after the November 3rd election … because Republicans (and America) will win!”
Moreno told Fox News Digital that the money would come from a “market access fee” charged to foreign companies selling goods in the U.S. market rather than directly from taxpayers. He said recipients would have to spend the funds domestically.
“This dividend would be something that is allowing working Americans to share in the prosperity of this country,” Moreno said, adding that the payments would help offset costs Americans “were still feeling” after what he described as economic strain during the Biden administration.
GOP pushback and fiscal concerns
Several Republicans, including senators, have criticized the proposal, warning that it could add to the national debt, which has surpassed $38 trillion, according to the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune told Fox News Digital that the proposal “smells very much like a reconciliation issue,” referring to the budget process Republicans could use to bypass Democratic opposition. He also said it was “a proposal that we hadn’t heard before” Trump announced it in Dallas.
Texas Rep. Chip Roy called the dividend “dependency,” describing dependency as “evil and soul-sucking in all its forms.”
Economist Peter Schiff warned that funding the payments could require the Federal Reserve to create money, risking “massive inflation, well in excess of anything experienced under Biden.”
Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale said he was “strongly against bread and circus bribes.”
Bond markets also reacted after Trump’s announcement. The Treasury’s two-year yield rose 10 basis points to 4.53 percent the following morning, reflecting investor concerns about the proposal’s fiscal implications.
Cruz’s broader argument on socialism
Cruz’s “right-wing socialism” argument comes after months of Republican criticism of the Democratic Party’s leftward shift, particularly around New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist, won the Democratic mayoral primary in June 2025 and the general election that November. His campaign centered on free bus fares, city-run grocery stores, rent freezes and higher taxes on top earners.
Cruz and other Republicans have compared Mamdani’s proposals with socialist policies abroad. Cruz previously amplified a comment from chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov, who wrote, “socialism is like polio, it comes back when people forget about the horrible damage it did last time.” Cruz captioned the post, “Fact check: true.”
By using the phrase “right-wing socialism,” Cruz sought to distinguish Democratic-aligned socialism from Republican proposals he views as similarly transactional.
His comments to Cain framed direct cash payments as a Democratic-style approach that Republicans should reject in favor of policies focused on job creation and small-business growth.
