Ted Cruz’s Daughter’s Reaction to Hearing Donald Trump’s Name Goes Viral

A video has gone viral showing Senator Ted Cruz’s 16-year-old daughter Caroline visibly grimacing when her father mentions President-elect Donald Trump.
During his victory speech on Tuesday night after winning reelection in Texas, Cruz said, “I hope and pray that Donald Trump will be reelected president of the United States.” The crowd and Cruz’s wife Heidi Cruz clapped.
Caroline can be seen visibly grimacing, lowering her head, raising her eyebrows, looking side to side, turning her head to her mom Heidi and, according to viewers of the video, appears to say, “Don’t clap for that.” Heidi Cruz then looks at Caroline and stops clapping.
The video was posted on TikTok on election night by user @_beingmaddy, and had been viewed 9.7 million times by Friday morning.
Another version was posted on X on Thursday by @TheTNHoller, a frequent Trump critical account, which had been viewed 1.8 million times by Friday morning.
Newsweek has contacted Cruz’s office via email for comment.
Most of the comments on the video praised Caroline, writing, “Caroline Cruz is that girl,” “Omg she’s trouble 😂 love this for him,” and “The ‘don’t clap for that’ is so valid.”
When he first ran for president in 2016, Trump publicly insulted Heidi Cruz several times while he and Ted Cruz were competing for the Republican nomination.
During the campaign, the National Enquirer published an unsubstantiated article accusing Cruz of numerous affairs while married to Heidi. At the time, Cruz accused Trump of planting the article and denied the allegations.
In response, Trump posted a meme on Twitter showing an unflattering photo of Heidi Cruz alongside a flattering photo of his wife Melania Trump. Trump wrote, “A picture is worth a thousand words.”
In 2024, during Trump’s hush money trial in New York, the then-publisher of the Enquirer David Pecker testified that he had an agreement with Trump’s campaign to plant false, damaging articles about Cruz. The Enquirer also published a story falsely tying Ted Cruz’s father to the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
Cruz went on to endorse Trump and become one of his most loyal supporters in the Senate. He was one of the 11 Republican Senators who announced plans to try and overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election, days before the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
Later in 2021, then 13-year-old Caroline made a TikTok where she said she disagreed with most of her father’s views. Her TikTok account was then set to private.