Ted Cruz: Trump's First Week, Texas vs. California, Immigration, DOGE, Greenland

Summary

The All-In hosts interview Senator Ted Cruz on the eve of Donald Trump's second inauguration. Cruz contrasts Texas's low-tax, light-regulation model with California, lays out what he sees as the election mandate (border security, ending the federal war on energy, extending the 2017 tax cuts) and warns that DOGE is unlikely to deliver real spending cuts. He also argues that buying Greenland is a serious Arctic-security and critical-minerals proposal and that Trump is effectively negotiating on price over the Panama Canal. Market-relevant content is thin: the clearest investable point is regulatory relief for US oil and gas.

• Cruz credits Texas growth to no income tax, light regulation and a pro-business culture, with over a thousand new residents a day for more than a decade.
• He sums up his immigration position as legal good, illegal bad, and expects Catch and Release to end immediately and criminal illegal aliens to be arrested quickly.
• He expects roughly 100 executive orders in week one, which he argues dilutes the opposition's ability to attack any single one.
• He sees a mandate to end the federal war on energy on Texas oil and gas and expects over 90 Biden-era energy regulations to be reversed.
• Cheaper energy is presented as the main disinflation lever for pump, grocery and household bills.
• The expiring 2017 tax cuts are to be extended, and he hopes expanded, through reconciliation.
• He is openly sceptical of DOGE: waste, fraud and abuse rhetoric usually signals no real cuts, and a bipartisan coalition protects spending.
• On foreign policy he backs a serious Greenland acquisition push (Arctic position, shipping lanes, rare earths) and expects the Panama Canal fight to end in lower tolls for US ships and Chinese operators removed rather than US control.