Donald Trump Jr. escalated the growing MAGA civil war over Iran this week, accusing Sen. Ted Cruz of lying about the details of his father’s proposed peace deal with Tehran.
Sen. Cruz has been a vocal supporter of the president’s deeply unpopular war in Iran, calling it “exactly the right decision.” He does not support Trump’s deal to end the war.
His statements have deepened a bitter rift within the MAGA movement over Iran.
While figures such as conservative activist Laura Loomer and Fox News host Mark Levin have backed Trump’s calls for Iran’s “immediate surrender,” a growing faction of influential Trump supporters—including Tucker Carlson, Andrew Tate, Milo Yiannopoulos, and Nick Fuentes—have accused the president of betraying the anti-war promises at the heart of the America First movement.
In an interview with The Daily Wire on Wednesday, Cruz turned on Trump, arguing that the Iran peace deal he signed this week could send “$10 billion and $30 billion” to a regime he described as “theocratic lunatics who want to murder us.”
“What has been released so far suggests that, unfortunately, the president is getting, I think, very poor advice when it comes to this deal. History teaches that giving billions of dollars to theocratic lunatics who want to murder us is a bad idea,” he said.
“Under the terms of what’s been released, somewhere between $10 billion and $30 billion will flow to the Ayatollah immediately before they make even a single nuclear concession.”
Cruz said the money would be used to fund terrorism and rebuild military capabilities that Trump had previously targeted, adding that it is “difficult to see what possible benefit to America could come from” the agreement. While praising Trump for taking military action against Iran and acting as a “strong commander-in-chief,” Cruz said it is “not remotely in America’s interest” to effectively help restore the regime’s power.
The president’s eldest son hit back at Cruz’s comments, accusing him of “lying through his teeth.”
“The only problem with this quote is that @tedcruz is lying thru his teeth about the deal. We’re not giving them a cent, and he knows that. Using fake news about the peace deal to undermine @realDonaldTrump is the opposite of MAGA,” Trump Jr. wrote on X.
The Daily Beast has contacted Sen. Cruz for comment.
Trump announced the long-awaited peace deal during his trip to the G7 conference in France.
“It’s signed, yeah,” the president told reporters outside the Palace of Versailles. “I signed it in Versailles. I just signed it.”
The 14-point agreement follows months of deadlocked negotiations, with Washington and Tehran struggling to reach consensus on key issues including the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and the future of Iran’s nuclear program.
Among other things, the agreement commits to a $300 billion fund for the “reconstruction and economic development” of Iran.
Trump denied that Iran would receive the funds on Monday, but Vice President JD Vance confirmed that part of the deal, telling CBS News’s Ed O’Keefe, “Well, Ed, that’s the sort of thing they could have access to, funded by the Gulf Coast Coalition, so long as they honor their end of the obligation.”
Trump, who reportedly faced mounting pressure to wind down the conflict amid weak polling and rising inflation, also agreed to unfreeze an unspecified amount of Iranian assets under the proposed deal.
Notably, one of Trump’s central war aims—dismantling Iran’s nuclear program—remains unresolved. Instead, the agreement would have Iran reaffirm its commitment not to develop a nuclear weapon while leaving thornier questions about its existing stockpile of enriched uranium to future negotiations.
In exchange, Iran has pledged to guarantee the safe passage of commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical global shipping route that has been effectively closed since the war began.
