Caroline Cruz, the 16-year-old daughter of Republican Senator Ted Cruz, is going viral online for her grimaced expression during her father’s Tuesday evening victory speech. During his speech, Senator Cruz said, “I hope and pray that Donald Trump will be re-elected as President of the United States.”. The crowd cheered, but Caroline was seen visibly grimacing and appeared to tell her mom, Heidi Cruz, “Don’t clap for that.” Heidi then stops clapping. The video can be seen swirling around on TikTok and X, or at this link.
So why the grimacing, yet comedic, facial expressions? Commenters online speculate that Cruz’s past tension with President-elect Donald Trump could be the reason. During the 2016 presidential race, Donald Trump and Ted Cruz clashed heavily while vying for the Republican nomination. Trump publicly mocked Cruz’s wife, Heidi, multiple times. At one point, the National Enquirer published an article alleging that Cruz had multiple extramarital affairs, which Cruz dismissed as false. He also accused Trump of being behind the story. In response, Trump tweeted a meme that compared an unflattering picture of Heidi Cruz with a glamorous photo of his own wife, Melania, adding the caption, “A picture is worth a thousand words.”
In 2024, during Trump’s hush-money trial in New York, David Pecker, the former publisher of the National Enquirer, testified that he had coordinated with Trump’s campaign to publish damaging, false stories about Cruz.
Despite these past conflicts, Cruz ultimately endorsed Trump and became a steadfast supporter in the Senate. In 2020, Cruz was among 11 Republican Senators who sought to overturn Joe Biden’s victory, just before the January 6 Capitol riot. Later, in 2021, Cruz’s 13-year-old daughter, Caroline, made a TikTok expressing that she disagreed with most of her father’s political views.
SOURCE: WSAZ3