U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) and his father Rafael Cruz applaud at the Republican National Midterm Convention in Dallas, Texas, U.S., September 10, 2026. REUTERS/Jessica Koscielniak
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) praised President Donald Trump's "instinctual genius" for the "Lyin' Ted" attack that the president used against him in the 2016 primary.
Cruz made the remarks to host Miranda Devine on an episode of the New York Post podcast "Pod Force One" that premiered Wednesday. The senator said he has been Trump's "strongest ally" for more than a decade. Much of the interview traced how the two men went from rivals to partners.
Devine asked how Cruz had set aside the rancor of 2016, when he beat Trump in Iowa and, she said, stood as the last Republican between him and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
"He called you 'Lyin' Ted'?" Devine asked.
"Oh, yeah. Which I will admit was politically very effective," Cruz replied.
"Look, the man has an instinctual genius," the senator continued.
"What was so effective about it was, my single strongest attribute was that the voters trusted me," Cruz said. "That they trusted that I said what I believed and did what I said."
"And so the jiu-jitsu of Trump was to take my greatest strength and make an attack that goes right at it," he said. "And I think he does that instinctually, in a very effective way."
Cruz said that primary is why the two became close, telling Devine he was the only candidate who beat Trump more than once.
He won 12 states that year, Cruz said, while no other Republican won more than one.
Ohio went to then-Gov. John Kasich and Minnesota to then-Sen. Marco Rubio, he said.
"He and I stood in the arena and I punched him in the face as hard as I could," Cruz said. "And he punched me in the face as hard as he could. And we kept on going."
"I don't think he respects girly men," Cruz said of Trump. "He doesn't respect people who are weak. He respects people who have strength."
"The guy's got a cast-iron backbone," the senator added. "It's the single best attribute, that he does not wilt from a fight."
Cruz said the primary had been ugly and that both men took hard shots, leaving him a choice to make after Trump won the White House in November 2016.
"I could have chosen to be pissed off, to say I'm mad, my feelings are hurt, and I'm going to take my ball and go home," Cruz said.
"If I was going to do that, Miranda, I better be prepared to resign from the Senate," he continued, "because there's no way I could represent 32 million Texans … if I was going to put my own hurt feelings ahead of the interest of Texans."
Instead, Cruz said, he flew to New York the week after the election.
He spent four and a half hours at Trump Tower with the president-elect and his senior team, the senator said.
"I want to roll up my sleeves and do everything I can to lead the fight for us to deliver on our promises," Cruz said he told Trump. "And that's exactly what I did."
Trump offered him the Department of Homeland Security and spent 30 to 40 minutes trying to steer him onto the Supreme Court, Cruz said.
He declined both, the senator said, and made what he called a "half-hearted run" at attorney general.
"I don't want to be a judge," the senator said. "I want to be in the arena. I want to be in the political fight."
A week earlier, Cruz had defended a different Trump claim in an interview with CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins, saying he trusted the president's account of being carried away from Ground Zero by firefighters after 9/11.
"You could doubt whatever you want about Donald Trump, but the man is a New Yorker. He loves New York, and I have every doubt that what he's conveying there is what he experienced," Cruz told Collins.
Collins then pressed him on whether anyone should exaggerate what happened on 9/11.
"Look, I think when you're sharing your feelings, your sentiments," Cruz said, before turning to his own memory of being in Washington that day.
No evidence supports Trump's claim that he sent hundreds of workers to help with the recovery, according to PolitiFact, and the fact-checkers reported that the earliest photograph or video of him near Ground Zero is dated Sept. 13, 2001.