Ted Cruz had to delete a social media tribute to Dolly Parton after the X user he retweeted changed their name to an NSFW dig at the Texas senator.
The 55-year-old shared a post from the X account @lebatardshowfan showing Parton on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in September 1979, when she was 33.
In the clip, the late country musician debuts a song she wrote for the occasion, “(I Never Really Made It Till) The Johnny Carson Show,” playing an acoustic guitar with acrylic nails.
Parton, who died Tuesday at 80 after a brief battle with cancer, appeared on the NBC late-night show 25 times with Carson hosting, and 37 times in all.
“Legend,” Cruz wrote.
But the Republican legislator’s post wouldn’t remain up. The reason: the person he chose to repost is no fan of his, as evident by their new display name: “Ted Cruz’s tiny d--k.”
That user also commented on Cruz’s retweet in a post.
“Thanks for the retweet, Ted. Remember in 2016 you told the RNC Convention to ‘vote your conscience’ and then ultimately gave up having any backbone and backed Trump who called your wife ugly? Fun times.”
Cruz deleted his post after about 17 hours. It wasn’t immediately clear for how much of that time the other X user’s new name was visible. It has since been changed.
Nevertheless, Cruz’s post was widely mocked, including by The Lincoln Project, a group of anti-Trump Republicans, and the Tucker Carlson Network, whose namesake has butted heads with Cruz over foreign policy, notably in an interview last June.
Cruz’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast, nor did the X user he reposted.
Wednesday’s prank ranks among the Texas lawmaker’s most embarrassing moments on X. Leading the field is the September 2017 incest porn incident, in which Cruz “liked” a two-minute clip from an account with the username “SexuallPosts”—before hurriedly unliking it.
