Ted Cruz Mocks Ro Khanna's '$340 Million' Wealth Over Post on France Protests

Senator Ted Cruz called Representative Ro Khanna a hypocrite after the California Democrat blamed the unrest spreading across France on wealth inequality rather than on immigration, the explanation Khanna's post attributes to Vice President JD Vance. To make his case, the Texas Republican read out a net worth estimate for Khanna that he said he had found on Google.

On Wednesday's episode of Verdict with Ted Cruz, Cruz read Khanna's post aloud and then asked co-host Ben Ferguson to guess how much the congressman is worth. Ferguson guessed "decent seven figures." Cruz corrected him: "It's not eight figures, it is nine figures."

Ro Khanna Rebuts JD Vance on France

Khanna's post, which Cruz read in full on the show, ties France's protests to similar protests in Spain and Albania. "Young people are telling their governments the same thing. In an age of massive wealth inequality, they want a future they can believe in," it says, in the wording Cruz read. It then takes aim at Vance, who it says "says this is what happens when a nation lets too many immigrants from the global South," and calls him "not just morally wrong, but misreading the moment." The post closes with a call for "America's next new deal."

The unrest in France has turned violent. On Saturday, more than half a million people marched across the country, and the protests were marred by violence and looting. A fire set in the 19th-century city hall in Limoges caused its roof to collapse, the Christian Science Monitor reported.

Ted Cruz Turns to Ro Khanna's Wealth

Cruz said Khanna was "lying about what's happening in France" by describing it as a student uprising. "When you see adults, you see Islamists, you see people waving Palestinian flags, you see communists waving communist banners," he said.

Then he went after Khanna's wealth. "I just typed into Google. How much is Ro Khanna worth? And here's the answer. U.S. Representative Ro Khanna has an estimated net worth ranging from approximately $230 million to over $340 million," Cruz said.

He called Khanna "a guy who's worth a third of a billion dollars" and offered him some advice.

"Well, Ro, I got a suggestion. Why don't you take your $340 million and maybe give a million dollars to 340 of your neighbors?" — Ted Cruz

"The utter hypocrisy, and you see this on the left over and over and over again," Cruz added.

The figure Cruz read is a search-engine estimate, not an audited number. Members of Congress report their assets in broad value ranges. Khanna's disclosure for 2025 puts his household's net worth at as much as an estimated $167 million, compared with as much as $78 million when he entered Congress in 2017, the Washington Examiner reported. The same report says his family trusts made 5,402 stock trades in 2025.

Who Is Behind the Unrest in France

Cruz also said the riots "are being funded by a global network of the same radical leftists, the same Marxist and Islamist, who funded the violence here in the United States." He named one source in particular: "These same radicals, including the Syngum network, are funding this, and Europe is foreshadowing where America is headed."

That claim has not been shown. French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez and Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu have blamed "radical far-left groups" for starting the violence, the Christian Science Monitor reported. Authorities say at least 1,800 people have been detained. Fox News reported that BreakThrough News, a New York outlet funded by the Shanghai-based businessman Neville Roy Singham, had amplified the protests. The same report found that only 15 of the 50 groups tied to the protest movement were student or youth organizations. It did not establish that Singham funded or directed the violence.

Cruz's description of Democrats is his own characterization. At the top of the episode he said "today's Democrats have been taken over by Marxists and Islamists."

Cruz Warns of the Same Unrest in the U.S.

Cruz said Europe is "about 10 years ahead of America" and argued that Democrats are comfortable with where that road leads. He made the argument less than two weeks before the midterms, with Democrats leading the generic ballot by 8.4 points in PolitiKool's polling average.