Ted Cruz slams ‘communist’ leaders as rich thieves during an interview. Then critics note his description sounds like Trump

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) criticized leaders he called communists during a Fox News interview.  Some critics said his comments sounded like they could describe President Donald Trump instead.

During the interview, Cruz referred to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani as “comrade Mamdani.” He also criticized Mamdani for owning a home in Uganda, the country where Mamdani was born. Mamdani identifies as a democratic socialist, not a communist.

Cruz brought up two other world leaders while making his point about communism and wealth. “But that’s always the case. Fidel Castro was a billionaire. Putin is a billionaire,” Cruz said. “The leaders of communist regimes are always rich. They steal and rob from those they govern.”

Cruz pointed to Castro and Putin while making his argument

Cruz is one of several Republican leaders who have recently used the term “communist” to describe political opponents. This is not the first time Cruz has criticized Mamdani, as Cruz previously mocked Mamdani’s AC advice in an earlier exchange. Trump has used the term “communist” often in recent months as part of a message similar to the Red Scare era. In many cases, Trump has applied the label broadly to people he disagrees with.

Trump’s personal wealth has grown by more than $2 billion since he returned to the White House last year. Over $1 billion of that growth came from his crypto businesses.

That growth happened during a period when about 764,000 other crypto wallets lost significant money on the $TRUMP token, according to The New York Times.

The Wall Street Journal editorial board has also weighed in on Trump’s finances. The board accused Trump and his family of “profiting off the presidency in ways that demean the office.”

Cruz’s comments about communist leaders being “always rich” and accusing them of stealing from the people they govern led some critics to say the description could apply to Trump as well. Mamdani and Trump have also clashed over other foreign policy issues, including after Mamdani’s idea to arrest Netanyahu in New York drew a response from the president.

Several social media users responded to Cruz’s remarks with comments referencing Trump’s own finances and business dealings during his presidency. The comments compared Cruz’s description of communist leaders to reporting on Trump’s wealth growth in office.

Brandon Richards, Deputy Communications Director for California Governor Gavin Newsom, mocked Ted Cruz’s history of controversial travel, joking that “Cancun Cruz” didn’t seem to realize what he had just admitted about Trump.

Political commentator Jeff Timmer’s reaction was brief but pointed, simply asking who would be the one to tell Cruz what he had just implied.

Writer Anne Applebaum offered a drier take, noting that Cruz had “left out another country” in his list of communist regimes – a reference many read as pointing towards the Senator’s reluctance to name Russia as an authoritarian state. 

Other users were more direct. One social media user asked simply whether Cruz and others making similar arguments ever listened to themselves. Another user’s post, which gained significant traction with thousands of likes, stated plainly that it sounded like Cruz was describing Trump as the leader of a communist regime.

The pattern across the reactions was consistent: critics argued that Cruz’s own description—rich leaders who “steal and rob from those they govern” – invited comparison to reporting on Trump’s finances, including his personal wealth growth and the Wall Street Journal editorial board’s criticism of profiting off the presidency, rather than landing solely on Mamdani, Castro, or Putin as Cruz intended.