Ted Cruz Reveals What Trump Told Him Behind Closed Doors | PBD Podcast #851
September 2, 2026
AI Summary
5 min readIn February 2016, Ted Cruz was asleep in a shared vacation house in Oaxaca, Mexico, when Matthew McConaughey burst into his bedroom at 2:37 a.m., jumped on the bed on all fours, and demanded Cruz come drink with him. Cruz declined. The story is a rare personal window into a senator who has spent a decade as Donald Trump’s strongest ally in the Senate, but who also once stood across from him in a brutal primary fight. Cruz sat down with podcaster Patrick Bet-David to discuss the 2016 race he lost, the 2028 race he might enter, and the internal war he sees tearing at the Republican Party.
The 2016 primary: what Cruz believes he could have done differently
Cruz won 12 states in the 2016 Republican primary, more than any candidate except Trump. He attributes his success to blue-collar voters — truck drivers, steel workers, cops, waitresses — who trusted him over Marco Rubio or Jeb Bush. In states where Cruz was the blue-collar favorite, he won. In states where Trump was, Trump won. No other Republican won more than a single state.
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What you'll learn
- 1 (03:06) **2028 Strategy & The Ethanol Mandate Story** - Cruz describes the foundational process of running for office: sitting down with voters and answering their questions directly, not with talking points.
- 2 (06:10) **The 2016 Blue Collar Voter Analysis** - Cruz breaks down why he and Trump dominated the 2016 primaries while other candidates like Marco Rubio failed.
- 3 (09:03) **The Unbeatable General Election Coalition** - Cruz details the two groups that decide presidential elections and how he predicted Trump's 2016 victory.
- 4 (13:25) **"Absolutely" - Cruz on Beating Hillary** - Cruz states he believes he would have beaten Hillary Clinton in the general election, and explains the massive shift in the party's socioeconomic base.
- 5 (16:53) **The Road Not Taken: The Secret Marco Rubio Ticket** - Cruz reveals the most consequential moment of the 2016 campaign: a planned meeting to join forces with Marco Rubio.
- 6 (24:52) **The "Lyin' Ted" Strategy & Authenticity** - Cruz analyzes Trump's marketing genius and explains why he chose not to fight Trump with insults.
- 7 (28:06) **Going Around the Gatekeepers** - Cruz discusses the power of podcasts and long-form media to bypass the traditional media filter that paints all Republicans as either "stupid" or "evil."
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Guests on this episode
Show Notes
Patrick Bet-David sits down with Senator Ted Cruz to discuss the 2028 Republican race, his differences with JD Vance and Marco Rubio, why he calls Tucker Carlson dangerous, and the alliance he believes could have stopped Trump in 2016. Cruz also reveals private moments involving Trump and Elon Musk.
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ABOUT US:
Patrick Bet-David is the founder and CEO of Valuetainment Media. He is the author of the #1 Wall Street Journal bestseller “Your Next Five Moves” (Simon & Schuster) and a father of two boys and two girls. He currently resides in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
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