Ted Cruz's Dolly Parton Tribute Post on X Sparks Embarrassment, Then Deletion

Ted Cruz’s tribute to Dolly Parton took an unexpected turn after the Texas senator apparently became the latest victim of an X account name prank.

Cruz, 55, had shared a post celebrating the late country music icon, who died Tuesday at age 80 following a brief battle with cancer. But the Republican senator later deleted his tribute after the account he had retweeted changed its display name to a jab aimed directly at him.

The post Cruz shared came from the X account @lebatardshowfan and featured Parton performing on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in September 1979.

In the clip, the music icon, then 33, debuted a song she had written for the occasion, “(I Never Really Made It Till) The Johnny Carson Show,” while playing an acoustic guitar.

“Legend,” the Texas legislator wrote while sharing the throwback clip.

However, the account he had chosen to amplify had changed its display name to “Ted Cruz’s tiny d---.”

It didn’t take long for people online to notice.

The account holder even appeared to acknowledge the situation directly, responding to Cruz’s now-deleted retweet: “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 ultimately deleted the tribute after roughly 17 hours. It’s unclear how long the display name had been visible before he removed the post, and the account has since changed its name to “Mark.”

Still, the internet had already gotten its screenshots.

Fans wasted no time piling on, with one person writing, “Poor @tedcruz has finally admitted it. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣”

Another joked, “i never get tired of ted cruz embarrassing himself LMAO.”

"Did he even NOTICE the name of the account he was responding to? This is epic," a third wrote.

Even The Lincoln Project and the Tucker Carlson Network joined in on the online mockery.

The awkward moment also brought renewed attention to another infamous Cruz social media mishap. In 2017, his verified X account “liked” a p---------- tweet, which subsequently appeared on his profile and quickly went viral.

At the time, the politician said the incident was “a staffing issue” and “an inadvertent” mistake, explaining that several people had access to the account, per The Guardian.

Wednesday’s Parton tribute may have been far less scandalous, but it certainly ended up being just as embarrassing.

He never addressed the prank directly. Instead, he returned to posting about Parton, later advocating that September 25 be officially designated “Dolly Parton Day.”