Sen. Ted Cruz got a brutal welcome from fellow Texans, the kind that mirrors President Donald Trump’s awkward public appearances.
Trump has repeatedly attended sporting events and live gatherings, where cameras often capture the crowd’s reaction even when the people onstage pretend not to hear it.
Something similar happened to Cruz, and the cameras kept rolling as the crowd intended to ruin his live appearance.
Cruz turned a college football pregame show into a reminder that sometimes the crowd gets the last word.
He arrived on ESPN’s College GameDay to promote the “Protect College Sports Act.” The mostly University of Texas crowd immediately offered him a different kind of college experience: public humiliation.
Rece Davis tried to interview Cruz, but the boos nearly swallowed his answers.
Trump has faced similar reactions from his hometown crowd at other sporting events, most recently during the July 2026 World Cup Final and Game 3 of the NBA Finals.
For Cruz, fans even broke into a chant of “Ted, you suck,” forcing the Republican to deliver his talking points through a wall of noise.
Cruz and Davis pressed on without acknowledging the crowd during the interview. But the cameras weren’t as polite.
A wide shot showed fans booing and flashing thumbs-down signs behind them, while ESPN skipped reactions from the rest of the GameDay panel.
Cruz’s political ally, President Donald Trump, knows the feeling too well, which a social media user pointed out online.
“WOW! Ted Cruz gets BOOED OUT OF THE BUILDING on COLLEGE GAMEDAY LYIN’ TED, NOBODY LIKES YOU! GO HOME, TED! VERY SAD!” replied one person to the viral footage.
Another said, “Nope, Texas students are some of the smartest kids in the state. They know Ted Cruz is a spineless Trump puppet!”
“Hahahaha his own state hates him,” added a third person.
A few hard listeners say the booing went on for “almost 3 minutes” and “would make a great background for a song.”
More than that, people noted that Cruz has endured an even more humiliating moment tied to Trump.
“I’d love to say Ted Cruz getting booed at College Game Day was embarrassing for him but the bar is very high. Remember when Trump called his wife ugly, and he did nothing about it another than bow to him more?” they wrote.
Cruz and Trump may get along now, but their 2016 primary feud once made “political rivalry” look like a family argument with a national audience.
Trump branded Cruz “Lyin’ Ted,” suggested without evidence that his father had ties to Lee Harvey Oswald, and insulted his wife, Heidi, over her appearance. Cruz responded by calling Trump “utterly amoral” and a “pathological liar.”
Years later, in 2022, ABC’s “The View” host Ana Navarro asked Cruz how he could move past Trump insulting his wife and making allegations about his father.
“I frankly don’t know how you get over your wife being called ugly,” Navarro said. “I don’t know how you get over those kinds of calumnies against your father. But you obviously have gotten over it.”
Then she delivered the punchline: “Were you lying then, or are you lying now?”
The Republican Texas senator returned to “The View” on Sept. 8, where boos erupted as soon as one host mentioned his name.
Whoopi Goldberg quickly stepped in to silence the audience. She raised her finger and declared, “Uh-uh! No, no, no, no!”
Goldberg reminded viewers that Barbara Walters created the show for respectful debate, then compared the boos to a burp: “Swallow it back down.”
The temperature warmed a bit when Cruz joined the table and faced questions about rising prices.
Asked to grade Trump’s economy, Cruz gave an “A,” drawing groans.
He called disagreement part of “the beauty of democracy” — awkward, since he’d warned tariffs raise prices and cost jobs.
People watching online had no intention of swallowing their reactions.
“YOU engage him then, Whoopi. Let the audience boo,” one person posted on X. Another wrote, “Whoopi is right, but Ted is still boo-able on so many things.”
Sunny Hostin also challenged Cruz as the panel examined his glowing economic assessment. Still, Goldberg does not reserve her referee whistle for Republicans.
In April, she checked Hostin during a fiery debate about whether former Trump loyalist Marjorie Taylor Greene deserved forgiveness after breaking with him. When Hostin interrupted Alyssa Farah Griffin, Goldberg stepped in.
“Let her tell you what she wants to do. Calm down!” she warned.
Hostin maintained that repeatedly supporting Trump was “unforgivable,” while Griffin argued that political coalitions sometimes require welcoming former supporters.
Cruz’s visit, which he used as an opportunity to promote “Going Further: The Incomparable Clarence Thomas,” his new book about the Supreme Court justice, also delivered another punchline.
Joy Behar said Trump’s approval rating was “lower than my boobs at this point.” Cruz looked visibly uncomfortable and replied, “I’m just gonna stay far away from that.” Goldberg wisely told him, “Just let it go,” according to The Sun.
The senator has become accustomed to awkward viral moments. During an April garden party at the British Embassy, King Charles joked that Cruz’s daughters could blame him if they failed their exams. Cruz jumped in to explain that one daughter was studying, making the royal small talk even stiffer.
Law professor Franita Tolson also turned Cruz’s own question against him during a Senate hearing. When he asked her to identify a discriminatory voter identification law, she replied, “Apologies, Mr. Cruz, your state of Texas, perhaps?”
Cruz may have awarded Trump an “A,” but the audience delivered its assessment with boos. Goldberg simply made sure the unofficial grading session did not take over the show.
