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 Tuesday night after his re-election in Texas, Cruz said, “I hope and pray that Donald Trump will be re-elected president of the United States.” The crowd and Cruz's wife, Heidi Cruz, clapped.

Caroline is seen visibly grimacing, lowering her head, raising her eyebrows, looking from side to side, turning her head towards her mother Heidi and, according to those watching the video, appearing to say, “Don't clap for that.” Then Heidi Cruz looks at Caroline and stops clapping.

The video was posted to TikTok on election night by user @_beingmaddy and had been viewed 9.7 million times as of Friday morning.

Another version was posted Thursday on X by @TheTNHoller, a frequently anti-Trump account that had been viewed 1.8 million times as of Friday morning.

Newsweek Cruz's office emailed for comment.

Most comments on the video praised Caroline, writing, “Caroline Cruz is that girl,” “OMG she's trouble 😂 I love that for him,” and “The 'don't clap for that' is so justified.”

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 Investigator published an unsubstantiated article accusing Cruz of numerous affairs during her marriage to Heidi. At the time, Cruz accused Trump of placing the article and denied the allegations.

In response, Trump posted a meme on Twitter showing an unflattering photo of Heidi Cruz next to an unflattering 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-editor of the demander David Pecker testified that he agreed with the Trump campaign to spread false, damaging articles about Cruz. The demander also published a story that falsely linked Ted Cruz's father to the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

Cruz supported Trump and became one of his most loyal supporters in the Senate. He was one of eleven Republican senators who announced plans to overturn Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 election just days before the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Later in 2021, then 13-year-old Caroline created a TikTok in which she said that she disagreed with most of her father's views. Her TikTok account was then set to private.