Bizarre Count Binface candidate has major Trump ally reeling as stunt backfires

The timing reveals desperation by the House leadership after Johnson reportedly betrayed the far right wing of his caucus and now wants to make amends, according to the report.

According to Politico, "The speaker promised hard-liners last month that he would hold a vote before July 4 on legislation that would codify President Donald Trump’s border security priorities — in exchange for their support on a more narrow bill funding federal immigration enforcement activities."

That never happened and, as Politico is reporting, "Those members now say Johnson has gone back on his word and, in revolt, they ground legislative business to a halt, forcing GOP leaders to send the House home early for the holiday recess."

"House passage of a measure to crack down the practice would be largely symbolic, as it stands no chance of overcoming the Senate filibuster," according to Politico's reporting.

The report notes that several GOP centrists are open to the "birth tourism" bill, according to people with knowledge of the talks. But the caucus remains deeply divided over immigration broadly, forcing Johnson to navigate competing factions with no clear path forward.

That order, issued in May, declared his name on the building illegal and gave him two weeks to take it down. He did.

"We now deny Appellants' motion for a stay pending appeal because they have failed to show how they will be irreparably injured absent a stay," the D.C. Circuit wrote.

The fight started in December 2025, after Trump packed the Kennedy Center's board with his own appointees, named himself chairman, and had them vote to rename the building "The Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts," according to ABC News.

Trump was asked about the vote at the White House that same day.

"We're saving the building. We saved the building," he told reporters. "The building was in such bad shape, physically, financially, in every other way."

Congress named the center for President John F. Kennedy by federal law in 1964 — and only an act of Congress can change it.

"The Kennedy Center is a living memorial to a fallen president and named for President Kennedy by federal law," former Rep. Joe Kennedy III (D-MA), a grandnephew of the late president, wrote on X. "It can no sooner be renamed than can someone rename the Lincoln Memorial."

Ticket sales dropped by 50% in the week after Trump announced his takeover, the Washington Post reported — even as he claimed record donations.

Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH), an ex-officio board member who said she was muted during the renaming vote and blocked from voicing her opposition, sued, according to court records.

Court records show Trump lost at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in May. He lost an emergency stay request on June 12 — the same day he was forced to comply and remove his name from the building. Now he has lost again.

Because the Trump team couldn't show they'd be hurt without the stay, the court said it didn't even need to consider whether they have a chance of winning the underlying appeal.

“How hard am I gonna crack down on China? Well, here’s a clue!” Blackburn is heard saying in the ad.

A voiceover then boasts of Blackburn's aggressive positions against China, saying that as governor, she would block Chinese companies from acquiring Tennessee land – and "hunt down every communist who tries to defy us." Amid the voiceover, Blackburn is shown smashing fortune cookies into small pieces with her bare hands.

At the end of the ad, Blackburn, her hands resting on a pile of broken fortune cookies, delivers one last message.

“It doesn’t take a fortune cookie to figure it out – here in Tennessee, we’re going to stop communist China and protect Tennessee land,” Blackburn is heard saying.

Bill Graham, a purported retired U.S. Marine and pro-Democratic commentator, called Blackburn’s ad “sickening.” Matt Anderson, the editor-at-large of Bless This Mess, a Nashville news and comedy commentary page, argued that while Blackburn’s message may land with Tennessee voters, the visual of Blackburn smashing fortune cookies was a “crazy choice.”

“This message surely lands but eating like a toddler in a restaurant was a crazy choice,” Anderson wrote in a social media post on X to his 7,000 followers.

Blackburn has a long history of criticizing China, once proclaiming that China had a “5,000-year history of cheating and stealing,” a remark that prompted Chinese journalist Chen Weihua to call Blackburn “the most racist and ignorant U.S. senator I have seen.”