Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who finished in second place to President Trump in the 2016 Republican presidential primary, has distinguished himself from MAGA World by declaring his skepticism of long-term tariffs, remaining a hawk on Russia and coming out against proposals to tax the rich.

By calling out tariffs as “taxes on American consumers” and sticking to his view that Russia poses a serious threat to U.S. interests, Cruz may be laying the groundwork to run against Trump’s heir apparent, Vice President Vance, in a 2028 Republican primary.

On Tuesday, Capitol Press congressional reporter Pablo Manríquez published a series of what he said were "briefing documents on Ted Cruz donors" on X, formerly Twitter, before they were deleted from the platform with a message saying they had "violated the X Rules."

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are scrambling to address the boom in deepfake artificial intelligence pornographic images, which have targeted everyone from celebrities to high school students.

Now, a new bill will seek to hold social media companies accountable for policing and removing nonconsensual sexually explicit deepfake images published on their sites. The measure would criminalize publishing or threatening to publish deepfake pornography.

Ellis Barry woke up one day in her freshman year of high school to find deepfake intimate photos of her plastered across Snapchat. It took months, dozens of requests and a call from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) for the photos to finally come down. 

That might change soon. 

On Tuesday, Cruz and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) introduced the Take It Down Act, which would require internet sites to take down deepfake revenge porn within 48 hours. 

A bipartisan group of senators introduced legislation that would require social media sites to take down deepfake "revenge porn" and make publishing it a federal crime.

The TAKE IT DOWN Act aims to protect and empower victims of nonconsensual intimate image abuse, also known as "revenge pornography." The bill would criminalize the publication of nonconsensual intimate imagery, or NCII, including AI-generated deepfake pornography, and require social media and similar websites to have in place procedures to remove such content upon notification from a victim.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has become the subject of much bemusement among his Senate GOP colleagues as he has taken a detour from his role as a conservative rabble-rouser to playing the lead on reauthorizing the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

The Texas senator, long known for stirring up trouble for leadership, has suddenly gone in the reverse as he has prodded Republicans against gumming up the works for the last must-pass bill in Congress for months.