Senator Ted Cruz
Appearances
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And the Texas Revolution was very much like the American Revolution. We lost every damn battle. The Alamo was a slaughter. Goliad was a slaughter, much like Washington, where every battle he lost and lost and lost. And then at San Jacinto, we won, defeated Santa Ana, General Sam Houston. And we became our own nation, the Republic of Texas, from 1836 to 1845.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
So, well, look, there are a lot of numbers that matter intensely. Let's start at one where you talked about low unemployment. As you know, that number can be deceptive because we also have among the lowest labor force participation we've ever had.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And so there are millions that have just dropped out of the labor force altogether. They're not measured in top-line unemployment, but it's still a real challenge. We have healthy young adults who should be working who are not working.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
Look, I think it varies state by state, but I think when you have a welfare state where you get paid for not working, people end up not working. And the statistics are really crushing that if anyone doesn't work for a year, the odds of their going back to the workforce drop precipitously. That once someone gets the habit of dependency, I've said a bunch of times,
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
You know, I try to think of every policy from the perspective of easing the means of ascent up the economic ladder. And I think about, you know, my dad when he was a teenage kid in Austin washing dishes. Thank God some well-meaning liberal didn't come to him and say, Raphael, let me take care of you.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
Just stay home. Let me send you a government check. Don't work so hard. And it's utterly destructive. It breaks your self-respect, your individual responsibility.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And you're right that much of it is not from ill will. But we do need to have a real conversation about what works to lift people into prosperity. And by the way, all of us know this in our own life. If you're a kid, let's say you have a kindergartner who's struggling with math. there's not a one of us who would do our kids' math homework. We know that's not helping them.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
That if your daughter doesn't learn to do arithmetic, it's gonna hurt her for the rest of her life. So you've gotta work through that problem with her, even if it'd be easier for you just to finish it for her. We know that in our lives. The old adage of give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
We know that with people we love, but yet when it comes to public policy, You have a lot of people who don't think about it more broadly. I'll say back in 2017, I did three different CNN town hall debates with Bernie Sanders. And listen, I like Bernie because he is an unapologetic socialist and I'm an unapologetic capitalist.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And we had 90-minute town hall debates on which system was better for maximizing human prosperity and abundance. And we didn't insult each other. Neither of us called each other a son of a bitch. We talked about the facts. And I'll point out something. Let's take socialized medicine. It's interesting. The advocates of socialized medicine, when I pointed out,
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
It does.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
all of the problems socialized medicine produces in every country in which it's been implemented, the United Kingdom, Canada. Bernie's answer was, well, it wouldn't be that way here. So the reality would not be here. Every year, about 50,000 Canadians come to America on what they call medical tourism because they can't get the medical care they need in Canada.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And I will suggest to you a question, particularly for those of y'all that are Californians, that I love asking advocates of socialized medicine. Why doesn't California adopt it? You've got a Democrat governor. You've got a Democrat supermajority legislature. There's no constitutional impediment. California could adopt socialized medicine today.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
It's not the mean old Republicans that are stopping them. And as you know, the legislature looked at it and realized it would bankrupt them. By the way, Vermont, Bernie's home state, they could adopt it. And the reason you don't see California or New York or Illinois or Vermont or any blue state in America adopt socialized medicine. It wouldn't work.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
It wouldn't work and people would flee their state. And so their answer is, we want to do it to everyone in the entire country so you can't flee. Unless you're willing to leave America, you're stuck.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
Well, on Monday we're going to see a flurry of executive orders. I think it'll be in the neighborhood of 100 executive orders. I'm optimistic about them. That's the number they're talking about. It's going to be in that neighborhood. Shock and awe. And I actually, I'm pretty happy about that. Now look, will I agree with all 100? I don't know.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
My guess is I'll agree with the vast majority of them, but I don't know everything that's in there, so we'll see.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
Yes, and Chamath, that's actually a point. You know, I think back to, so my wife Heidi and I met on the 2000 George W. Bush campaign. And so we both served as young people in the Bush administration. And I think there is a quantum of outrage, and I call it the arsenic quantum of outrage. If you remember the beginning of Bush 43, One of the first things he did is his EPA revoked a rule on arsenic.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And for like six weeks, the media saturated the airwaves with the evil Republicans want to poison our children with arsenic. And I mean, it was it dominated forever and they beat the living daylights out of him for it. Now, look, Monday, when you get 100 executive orders, I think that's how much outrage there is. And that arsenic quantum of outrage will be directed at everything smeared.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
Which makes it very hard for them to oppose anything coherently and directly and gives an opportunity, I hope, for this administration. What I'd like to see is really delivering on the mandate of this election. The outcomes in November were clear.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
So number one, secure the border. And I believe that'll start on January 20th. And it will start by ending catch and release so that when people are apprehended, they are detained and they're sent back to where they came from. I think that will be followed up by going and arresting criminal illegal aliens, going and arresting murderers and rapists and child molesters and gang bangers.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
I think all of that will roll out very, very fast. I think there is also a mandate to end the federal government's war on energy, on Texas oil and gas. And that will lower prices at the gas pump, at the grocery store, every bill people are paying. And I think if you look at the top two issues in this election, it was illegal immigration and safety, and it was inflation and the economy.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
I think we will also see a lessening of the job killing regulations on small businesses, a return to thriving, booming economic growth. What would those be? Look, there are a host of them. Energy is the easy example where the Biden administration's put in over 90 different regulations and executive orders, all designed to drive up the cost of energy.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And so I expect pretty much all of those to be reversed.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
Look, I think on energy, we ought to pursue all of the above. Beyond that, I think there is also a mandate on the economic side. The 2017 Trump tax cuts are expiring this year. We're going to extend them. My hope is we make them bigger and bolder. That's going to take some time. We'll do that through what's called the reconciliation process. And then on foreign policy.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
I think under Biden, we have abandoned and alienated our friends and we've shown weakness and appeasement to our enemies. I think that will stop. on Monday as well.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And I'm happy to answer that directly. Let me just say one thing you just said there with respect is incorrect.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
You said there's no way we're cutting taxes and not cutting spending and having inflation stay down. And I just say that's objectively false because that's exactly what happened in the first Trump term. which is the 2017 tax cuts. CBO had these apocalyptic projections.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
Tax revenue went up every single year. After we cut the taxes, the revenue from the federal government went up. So we cut taxes. Sadly, we did not cut spending. I tried mightily to cut spending, but we did not have the votes to do it, and inflation still stayed down. So if the economy is booming, you can turn things around.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
So I am excited about Doge. Elon is a good friend. I admire the hell out of him. I'm thrilled that he's a Texan. You know, I've joked with Elon that he doesn't just think outside the box. He doesn't know there is a damn box. That's a great thing. Now, Elon calls me periodically going, all right, what the hell is this government thing? How does this work this way?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And I'm trying to give whatever guidance I can on that. But I think how you deal with a disruptor in government is going to be an interesting challenge. Vivek is very smart, very creative. I will say a couple of challenges. Right now, look, I'm excited about Doge. I want to see some big, bold, creative ideas. I'm going to give you two warning signs. Number one, the phrase waste, fraud, and abuse.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
So California used to know the answer to this. 50 years ago, California was the economic engine of the country.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
Anytime someone talks about waste, fraud, and abuse, they don't really want to cut government spending. You know why? Because there is no waste, fraud, and abuse caucus. There's no one that says, I'm for the waste. So it's the easy place to go. We'll cut the waste.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
If you actually cut real government spending, there is always, always, always a constituency who's pissed off, who likes the thing they're getting.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And so you have lots of politicians that are going to lose. They're going to lose their votes. Right. Somebody will be mad. That's right. And so that is a challenge. I will say, secondly, at least in the first term, Donald Trump did not campaign as a small government conservative and he did not govern as a small government conservative. And in fact, I will relay a story.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
At the end of the first term, you remember we're in COVID and the government is in the business of sending out checks and more checks and more checks to people all over the country. And Trump wanted the checks to be even bigger. And a lot of the folks in the White House, they asked me, they said, Ted, can you go try to talk him down from this lunch?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
So I went on Air Force One, and I'm sitting there with the president. I'm trying to make the case that we don't need these gigantic stimulus checks. And he goes, Ted, and I get the back of the hand. He goes, Ted, no one ever lost an election by spending too much money. I said, yeah, but they did bankrupt the country. So I did not succeed then.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
and unfortunately you're cursed by idiot politicians who were destroying this this mighty economic engine you know none of this is rocket science in in texas we believe in freedom we believe in low taxes and low regulations and and to understand the state texas was basically founded by a bunch of wildcatters who were guys with fourth grade educations that began drilling holes in the ground and one after the other became the richest man on earth yeah
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
That's a good idea. Look, I'll go with it. He likes big.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
So look, it's a good question.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
Yeah, listen, I am also a passionate advocate of term limits. So I have introduced in every Congress a constitutional amendment that would limit senators to two terms, limit House members to three terms. I think term limits would change that dynamic in a very significant way. Right. and the career politicians in both parties oppose it.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
Look, on any big spending bill, you unfortunately have a bipartisan coalition in favor of spending. You have essentially all the Democrats and about half the Republicans. There are about 20 of us who will vote against a trillion dollar spending. And we are frequently begging our colleagues.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And to be honest, I don't think we will ever see real spending restraint without strong presidential leadership, which means it will never come from a Joe Biden or Kamala Harris. And look, if Elon and Vivek convinced President Trump that he's going to lean in aggressively on cutting spending, great. But that hadn't happened so far.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
Yeah, look, it varies. It takes electing strong leaders. So I engage, elections matter, and I engage, so I think I've probably campaigned for more candidates for Senate, House, and governorship than any Republican in the country. I mean, I travel all over the country, I endorse candidates, and I follow the old Bill Buckley rule, which is I support the most conservative candidate who can win.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And that varies. Look, a candidate who can win in Texas is different than a candidate who can win in Maine.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
But I can say the problem is you get, I can tell you in Texas, I mean, when I ran, 2012, I ran for Senate. I'd never been elected before. Never been elected to nothing. Literally the last thing I was elected to was student council. By the way, Chamath, you may not remember this. You actually wrote me a check in that race.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
Look, my view on Denmark and Greenland, so I did a podcast two weeks ago on Denmark, Greenland, and Canada. And I did all three of them on my Verdict podcast. And I put them in a spectrum. Let's start with Canada. I think the President's Canada remarks were just trolling. I think he was just screwing with Trudeau.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
I think he was sitting at the table and decided, you know, why are you even a country? You ought to be a state. You should be a governor.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And the ethos of Texas, you know, it was interesting. A number of years ago, I was visiting with a CEO and an executive team of a company that had moved from California to Texas. And they didn't have any Texas ties, but they were just fed up with California. They moved to Texas. And so I was asking them, they'd only been in Texas for a couple of months.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
I love it. You know, I would have paid, frankly, to be sitting at that table just to see Trudeau's face.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
Look, it was reminiscent, if you remember the 2016 campaign on the debate stage, where Trump turned Rand Paul was at the end. And he's like, why are you even on this stage? And what is it with your hair? I mean, it was the same sort of comment that was just messing with him.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
I put that in one, and by the way, that may be the most epic troll of all time, because I think that literally pushed Trudeau into resigning. Crazy, huh?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And welcome to Texas.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
I will say, I couldn't resist tweeting and said, you know, Trudeau's lasted really long for a son of Fidel Castro. Oh, wait, wait.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
So Canada's a troll.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
Greenland, on the other hand, I think is a very serious policy proposal. And I think there are... You know, Trump mentioned this in the first term, and a lot of people dismissed it. Oh, this is just Trump talking wacky.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
But I think there are enormous national security and economic reasons why acquiring Greenland makes a ton of sense. Yeah. And you look at Greenland's location on the Arctic, it has incredibly prime location on the Arctic. From a national security perspective, God forbid we ever get in a shooting war with China or with Russia, ICBMs are coming right over the Arctic.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And Greenland is a prime location to deal with that. We're also seeing more shipping lanes coming in and around the Arctic. And China and Russia are both competing for prized access there. Greenland makes an enormous sense from that perspective. It also makes an enormous perspective from critical minerals and rare earth minerals. They have vast amounts.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And so what I said is, look, I think we should pursue this seriously. I'll tell you, I had a conversation this week with the Danish ambassador to the United States. And look, Denmark's a little freaked out by all this conversation. And I'll tell you what I told the ambassador. I said, listen, Denmark is our friend. You are our ally. You will continue to be our friend and ally.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
But friends and allies can have conversations. And the ambassador said, well, Greenland's not for sale. I said, that's fine. Everything's for sale. We're going to have a conversation. And by the way, if you maintain that, one of the things this has produced is a growing independence movement in Greenland.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And if you do nothing, you may end up getting nothing for Greenland because they break off on their own. Now, look, for it to happen, I think you would probably have to have a referendum on Greenland. I find it quite plausible that the Greenlanders, about 50,000 of them, would say, wait a second, I get to be an American? Their poll just showed positive results.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
I mean, to become an American is in many ways the greatest gift we can give anyone on planet Earth.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
I said, all right, what's the biggest difference? And I thought maybe they'd say taxes or maybe regulations or maybe lawsuits. Those were the three things I was gonna guess. Their answer blew me away. They said, the biggest difference is the culture. And what they said is, in California, if you're in business, you're a pariah.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And the billions in investment, if Greenland became an American territory, the difference it would make for Greenlanders.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
So look, Ken Howery, you guys know, I know, is a good friend who has been nominated to be ambassador to Denmark. I've talked with Ken just yesterday about this. I think we need to lean in and try to negotiate, both with Denmark and Greenland. I'm certainly from the Senate going to push it. But I wanted to contrast it. Is Canada going to become a state? No.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
But Greenland, listen, we acquired Louisiana purchase. We purchased from France. Alaska, we purchased from Russia.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And so Panama, I view as kind of in the middle of the two. And Panama is a little more complicated. Look, I think Jimmy Carter giving away the Panama Canal remains one of the most spectacularly stupid decisions a president has ever done in office. I think it was profoundly harmful to U.S. national security interests, to our economic interests.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
That being said, it's been long enough that unwinding it is really tough. However, President Trump, if you listen to what he's saying on Panama, he's got actually some very sophisticated legal arguments that he's making. Number one, when we gave the Panama Canal to Panama, technically sold it for a dollar, we had a binding agreement that laid out the terms of that transfer.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And one argument that President Trump has put forth is that Panama is in violation of that agreement because they have allowed China to effectively seize control of the canal. How is that? Because a Chinese state-owned enterprise owns a building on one end of the canal and on the other end of the canal.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And should we be at a point of conflict, military or other, with China, it's not difficult to imagine those Chinese state-owned enterprises using that location to try to shut down
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
anyone traversing the sounds like they avoided the contract that's that's a pretty powerful argument the second argument and i had breakfast this morning with president trump he had breakfast with all the republican senators two and a half hours he gets sworn in tomorrow and he spent two and a half hours stamina stream of consciousness talking we talked about panama he's pointing out uh the president said this morning said u.s navy ships paid double
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
what any other country's Navy ships pay. He said that American commercial ships pay 58% more than other nations pay. Look, we need to drill down into those facts, but on the face of it, I think there's a powerful argument that that's inconsistent with the terms of the agreement. And is the final outcome of this that we get total control of the Panama Canal back? Probably not.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
They said, look, there's an exception for tech and an exception for Hollywood. I need more. Well, that was their view. But they were not in tech or Hollywood. They were in sanitation, which was not a sexy business. And the way they described it, they said, if you're at a party and someone asks, what do you do? And you say, I'm a businessman. They said, people will turn around and walk away.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
I think that's a high lift. But in many ways, I think Trump is negotiating on price. And I could easily see an outcome where both Navy ships and commercial ships that are American pay much, much lower rates, number one. And number two, critically, that we get China the hell out of the canal. And that, if we accomplish those two, that would be a massive improvement from U.S. interest.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
Look, I've been really happy so far. I think the array of cabinet nominees has been very, very strong.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
Well, look, clearly the most bumpy was Matt Gaetz and they withdrew Matt Gaetz. He was not going to get confirmed. There were multiple Republican senators who were going to vote no. Right. But I will say, I mean, they withdrew that nomination pretty quickly.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
Pam Bondi is going to be terrific. She's going to get confirmed easily. I think right now every Trump cabinet nominee gets confirmed.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
Pete Hegseth is clearly who they're shooting at the most. I don't think they've scored real blood. I did a whole podcast on the Hegseth confirmation hearing where it spoke volumes that the Democrat virtually all of the Democrat attacks were personal attacks based on anonymous charges, typically with no evidence and with no one coming forward and putting their name on it.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And they had virtually nothing to say about the job to which he'd been nominated and what he intends to do as the Secretary of Defense. I think that fundamentally is a flawed strategy. So I think everyone gets through right now.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
Yes. Rubio? So Rubio will get 90 votes. He could get north of 95 votes. It'll be a huge bipartisan vote for Rubio. John Ratcliffe for CIA, he'll get significant bipartisan votes. Sean Duffy at Transportation, he'll get a bunch of bipartisan votes. Howard Lutnick at Commerce, my guess is he'll get bipartisan votes, although he hasn't had his hearing yet, so we'll see.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
So there will certainly be some. Pam Bondi, I think Pam is terrific. Brooke Rowlands? Brooke will get bipartisan votes. Part of it is, all right, let's take Sean Duffy. So I chaired the confirmation hearing for Sean Duffy, Secretary of Transportation. it was a love fest. Why was it a love fest? Because everyone wants a bridge or a road in their state.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
So if you're a Democrat, you're like, wait, you're Santa Claus and you're giving out hundreds of billions of dollars, I want some. And so everyone wants it. And so Brooke Rollins at Department of Agriculture, again, everyone wants stuff for ag and farmers in their state. So in that sort of role, it's easy for it to be a love fest. Pam Bondi, even though she did very well,
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
I'd be surprised if Democrats vote for just the nature of Attorney General in this politicized environment. My guess is, I think on the committee, the D's are going to vote no. But I think Pam will hold every Republican. And so I think she gets through easily. Bobby? Senator? I think he makes it through. I spent an hour with him. It'll be interesting. I was talking with him about this.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And I gotta say, as a Texan, that is weird. I mean, we lionize entrepreneurs.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
Will any Democrats vote for him? Obviously, he's been a Democrat his whole life until like 12 minutes ago.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And they really, they do view him as a Judas for daring to change. All of us. It's still, look. J. Cal too. You look at like red dye number three. You look at what Bobby is doing.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And his willingness to take on corruption, corruption of big pharmaceutical companies that get in bed with big government, that they perpetuate their monopolies using government power. So I talked to Bobby, for example, about a bill that I've been fighting for a long time that I call the Results Act.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
The Results Act says that if any pharmaceutical, any medical device is approved in another major developed country, so approved in Canada or Japan or the EU, that the FDA has 60 days to approve it here or it's deemed automatically approved by operations. Love it. Brilliant. I'm going to fight. I have been fighting for that, but I think now I have an HHS secretary that agrees with it.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
That's easy. These are Lucchese. Lucchese, the factory is in El Paso. They're handmade there. They're beautiful.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And I do think if you look at these cabinet nominees, the most striking characteristic of virtually all of them is that they're change agents, that they're going to fundamentally disruptors. And that's exciting. We need that.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
You are tempting me with poker chips. No, we're going to get you in a game. Senator, I know you don't make it to California much, but when you do, come play.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And we need scotch and a cigar, and I am perfectly happy. Maybe we'll go play in Austin. I can't stand all these gang balls where everyone's in tuxedos, but my happy place is sitting around the poker table with good conversation and good scotch.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
That was great.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
Well, there is a cause and effect. And you go back to 1987, and 1987 is when Ronald Reagan signed amnesty into place. And at the time, there were 3 million illegal immigrants living in the United States. And Congress went to the American people and said, all right, we got a deal for you. We're going to secure the border. We're going to fix the problem of illegal immigration forever.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And in exchange, we're going to give amnesty to the 3 million people who are here illegally now. And in 87, the American people said, OK, that sounds like a reasonable deal. They took the deal. Now we now know what happened, which is the amnesty happened, but the border never got secured. What did that mean for California? The highest concentration of illegal immigrants was in California in 1988.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And these particular boots, the front of them have the Senate seal on them. Oh, that's cool.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
California voted Republican in the presidential race as it had for six consecutive years, six consecutive cycles previously. 1988 was the last year California ever went Republican.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
For president.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
In the presidential race. And so I think the amnesty law played a significant part, the federal law changing the voting composition of the state.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And then, and look, you guys would know the state politics more, but it also seemed to me that you have the public employee unions in California that realize that they could vote themselves more and more of the largesse. The ultimate failure of democracy.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And the back of them have the come and take it flag. Whoa. Which, I don't know, do you know the history of the Come and Take It flag? I was about to ask you. Okay, since you're a new Texan, this is important. And he started saying y'all, so he's adapting, but he needs to learn.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
The real estate taxes are a little bit higher, but we have no income tax. So it more than makes up for it. Two percent, one and a half. That's the principal avenue of taxation. You've got real estate taxes and sales taxes are where the state and local governments get their taxes. But no income tax. Look, some of it is government does less.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
I mean, there's a philosophy that government doesn't have to spend and provide everything. Government does police and firefighters and roads and does the basic responsibilities of government. But it's not engaged in funding every pet project of every politician. That's part of it. You look at across the country, it is not a complicated migration pattern.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
People are fleeing bright blue states with high taxes and high regulations. And they're coming to red states with low taxes and low regulations.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
So we've had, it has now been more than a decade that we have had over a thousand people a day moving to Texas. So when I was first elected 13 years ago, we had 26 million Texans. Today we have over 31 million Texans. So we've added 5 million Texans in 13 years. And the biggest state folks come from is California. It's interesting, the migration pattern, you get a lot of California to Texas.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
New Yorkers tend to go to Florida more. We get some New Yorkers, but for whatever reason, West Coast folks seem to prefer Texas and East Coast folks seem to prefer Florida. But I actually think the competition in terms of where we lose people to, we lose people either to Florida or Tennessee. Those are about the only two places if someone's thinking of leaving. And I love that competition.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
I want Florida and Tennessee to be out fighting and saying, we can create an even better environment for small businesses and jobs. And part of it is The number one reason people come to Texas is Texas is where the jobs are. And you want an environment where you have small businesses that are doing great, but people also want to be safe.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And so you look at things like defunding the police or Soros prosecutors that let murderers go. And that gives people a pretty acute incentive to get the heck out.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
All right, so Texas in the 1820s and 1830s, we were part of Mexico. And the dictator of Mexico was General Santa Ana. And there's a little town in south Texas called the town of Gonzales. And General Ana sent an order to the Texians, which is what we were called back then, Texians, to hand over their guns and there was a cannon that guarded the city.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
Look, absolutely both. I have for a long time described my immigration views in four words. Legal, good, illegal, bad. Okay. I think most Americans, most Texans agree with that.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
Look, there's a right way to come to this country. There's the way you came to this country. There's the way my dad came to this country. My dad was born in Cuba. He grew up in Cuba. He fought in the Cuban Revolution. When he was a teenager, he fought, was thrown in prison. He was tortured when he was 17 years old. And he came to Texas in 1957. He was 18, couldn't speak English.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
had a hundred dollars in his underwear, and he washed dishes making fifty cents an hour. But he came legally because he had applied to the University of Texas, he'd gotten in, he came on a student visa.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
and he was an 18-year-old freshman and he started going to school here and he came legally and he worked and got a job and went on in time to start a small business and worked towards the American dream.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
He is. My dad is 85.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
He is my hero. He's an incredible, I will say, when you have lost freedom, it's personal to you. People ask sometimes, why do you do politics? And I grew up as a kid, I would sit on the floor, along with my cousin Bibi, with my dad and Bibi's mom, my tia Sonia. And she also, she was also imprisoned and tortured in Cuba. And we would sit and listen to them tell stories.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And all I ever wanted to do from when I was three, four, five years old was be a freedom fighter. I mean, it was, it's inspiring because what they said and still say, and they're both still going strong, is look, if The only thing that prevents us from tyranny is having good people in office who will fight for our freedoms.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And so I gotta tell you today, I literally jump out of bed every day because I look at the US Senate and I think it is basically the Roman Colosseum. and you strap on some armor and you grab a battleaxe and you go fight the barbarians. And that's an amazing opportunity. I feel blessed and fortunate every day.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And General Santa Anna said, hand over the cannon. And the Texians responded by making a flag with an image of the cannon and underneath it the legend, come and take it. And they flew it over the town and that was the beginning of the Texas Revolution. Now the epilogue is Santa Anna came in with about 6,000 soldiers and he did in fact take the cannon. I mean, Gonzales was a tiny little town.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
Listen, I agree with your point at the outset, which is that we need to talk to each other. I worry that we are too polarized and tribalized, that the left only listens to left-wing media, the right listens to right-wing media. Anyone who disagrees, you scream at them. The sense of community that we used to have has been badly badly unraveled, you know, on social media.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
If someone disagrees with you, you unfriend them. And we're all in this little echo chamber.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
But we're living in alternate realities. And so look, what y'all are doing is really important. I'm grateful for this podcast. We got to talk to each other. I do a podcast every week called Verdict with Ted Cruz. We've got about a million unique listeners that listen to the Verdict podcast. And we do it Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Every week, my podcast is beating CNN.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And I think the reason is the same reason people listen to you guys, because you're actually talking about issues and you're not just screaming at each other. It's not Jerry Springer, go grab a chair and fling it at somebody, but it's have a real and substantive conversation. And I'll tell you one of the things that I've done and enjoyed is I've taken the podcast on the road to college campuses.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
Well, for example, we did one at Yale a couple years ago and had about 700 students come out, and I didn't know how the reaction would be. And interestingly enough, about a third of the students were left of center. And I know that because it was right after Ketanji Brown Jackson was confirmed. And I made a reference to that. And about a third of the room began cheering.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And I stopped and I said, hey, look, the fact that you're cheering at that shows that obviously we're coming from different places on the political spectrum. I said, I want to thank you especially for coming here. Because you may not agree with me on everything or even most things. But thank you for coming and being part of a conversation. And so we did about 90 minutes of all Q&A.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
And we had a rule. We said, if you have a hostile question, if you have an antagonistic question, come to the front of the line. And we spent 90 minutes having a real conversation. Afterwards, I went out with an Orthodox rabbi on campus and we got a drink and he said, he said, Ted, you know, I've been working on Yale's campus. for decades.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Senator Ted Cruz | The All-In Inauguration Series
He said, this is the biggest group of students I've seen have a positive, civil, constructive conversation on conservative ideas, he said, in 20 years.