The rise and violent downfall of livestreamer Dalton Eatherly, better known online as “ChudTheBuilder,” has become one of the internet’s most explosive cautionary tales about race-baiting content, online extremism, and the blurry line between free speech and criminal conduct. Eatherly, 28, is now facing attempted murder and multiple felony charges after allegedly shooting a black man outside a Tennessee courthouse earlier this month in an incident that has drawn national attention and ignited fierce debate over the culture surrounding livestream “ragebait” creators. According to authorities, Eatherly — who built a sizable online following by filming himself shouting racial slurs at strangers and provoking confrontations in public — shot Joshua Fox during one such confrontation outside the Montgomery County Courthouse in Clarksville, Tennessee, on May 13. Fox, a veteran, was struck multiple times and airlifted to a hospital for emergency surgery. Eatherly was also injured during the shooting. Prosecutors have charged Eatherly with attempted criminal homicide, employing a firearm during a dangerous felony, aggravated assault, and reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon. During a Thursday hearing, his bond was reduced to $1 million after initially being set at $1.25 million. Authorities say the confrontation began as a verbal altercation before escalating into gunfire. According to court documents, Eatherly allegedly reached toward a firearm inside his jacket before the two men began fighting. Investigators say surveillance footage showed bullets ricocheting near bystanders outside the courthouse. In audio recorded after the shooting and later posted online, Eatherly claimed he acted in self-defense. Before his arrest, Eatherly had carved out a growing internet following through inflammatory livestream content that frequently involved using racial slurs in public while filming reactions. He regularly defended the behavior as protected speech under the First Amendment. His notoriety began growing in 2025 after a road-rage incident involving a black woman went viral online. Eatherly says the backlash cost him his contracting job and pushed him further into online content creation. From there, his audience expanded rapidly across livestreaming and social media platforms. He amassed more than 200,000 followers on X, launched online fundraising campaigns, and cultivated an audience who viewed him as a free-speech provocateur pushing back against political correctness. Critics, however, describe him as part of a growing ecosystem of “ragebait” livestreamers who profit from public outrage and racial provocation. “He’s trying to build this following by angering people,” Joshua Fisher-Birch, an extremism researcher with the Counter Extremism Project, told Rolling Stone. “They are incentivized over time to do more and more radical actions in the real world to gain followers online.” Civil rights advocates and legal experts have argued that Eatherly’s conduct may go far beyond protected speech. Tennessee attorney David Raybin noted that repeatedly approaching strangers while armed and aggressively hurling slurs could potentially constitute assault under state law if it creates fear of imminent harm. The case has also drawn significant support from elements of the online alt-right. Eatherly reportedly raised more than $100,000 for his legal defense within a single day after his arrest, with fundraising totals later climbing far higher. Inside the courtroom on Thursday, tensions surrounding the case were already apparent. Judge H. Reid Poland III ordered several attendees removed for disruptions, including provocateur Jake Lang, who was escorted out in handcuffs. Despite the mounting legal jeopardy, Eatherly’s case has become a broader flashpoint in the national debate over online radicalization, livestream culture, and whether platforms are financially incentivizing increasingly extreme behavior. For now, prosecutors appear intent on focusing attention back on the shooting itself — and the real-world consequences of internet notoriety spiraling into violence.

House Democrats joined with six Republicans on Thursday to block legislation advancing the long-awaited Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum, tanking the bill after Republicans added language limiting the museum to celebrating biological women and barring exhibits portraying males as female. The measure failed on a 216-204 vote after every Democrat voted against it, joined by a small bloc of Republican defectors, halting what had previously been a bipartisan effort to establish the museum on the National Mall. The legislation was led by Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY). The collapse of the bill came after Democrats abandoned legislation many of them had previously supported, once Republicans amended it to explicitly define the museum around biological women. New language added by Republicans stated the museum would be dedicated to “preserving, researching, and presenting the history, achievements, and lived experiences of biological women in the United States,” while also prohibiting the museum from depicting “any biological male as a female.” Democrats immediately denounced the changes, arguing they excluded transgender-identifying individuals and handed too much authority over the museum to President Donald Trump. Republicans countered that a women’s history museum should, by definition, focus on women. “The addition of the word biological made them all run for the hills,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said Wednesday. “If that’s controversial in the Democratic Party, we’re in serious trouble.” Malliotakis similarly blasted Democrats for withdrawing support over the added language. “A women’s history museum is supposed to be dedicated to women, period,” Malliotakis told Fox News. “And the fact that they’re going to pull their support after overwhelmingly co-sponsoring this bill because the word biological was inserted, to me, is ludicrous.” Democrats insisted the issue extended beyond transgender inclusion. The revised legislation also gave Trump authority to select an alternative site for the museum on the National Mall and included language calling for “equal representation of the diversity of the political viewpoints and authentic experiences held by women in the United States.” Leaders of the Democratic Women’s Caucus accused Republicans of turning a bipartisan project into a political fight. “They amended the bill to give Trump and his allies unregulated power over what content and which women can be included in the museum, and the museum’s location,” caucus leaders said in a statement. “A museum about women, fought for and supported by women, should not be controlled by one man.” The Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum was initially authorized by Congress in 2020 alongside the planned National Museum of the American Latino, but construction has remained stalled pending congressional approval of a permanent site. House Republicans widely viewed Thursday’s vote as an opportunity to force Democrats into a politically uncomfortable position on gender after the party’s struggles during the 2024 election cycle over questions involving transgender-identifying athletes and definitions of “woman.” But Republicans also faced internal resistance from fiscal conservatives and lawmakers skeptical that another Smithsonian museum was necessary. Several GOP lawmakers reportedly objected that women were already represented across existing Smithsonian institutions and raised concerns that the institution could ultimately become a platform for left-wing causes rather than a celebration of women’s achievements throughout American history. A source familiar with Republican concerns told Fox that lawmakers feared the museum could evolve into “a shrine to abortion activists like Margaret Sanger or the latest progressive cause” without stronger guardrails written into the legislation. In the end, those Republican defections combined with unanimous Democratic opposition were enough to sink the legislation, leaving the future of the women’s history museum uncertain and construction plans once again stalled indefinitely.

Kyle Busch, the two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion and one of the most accomplished drivers in stock car racing history, has died at the age of 41. NASCAR, Richard Childress Racing, and the Busch family announced his death Thursday in a joint statement, calling his passing a “sudden and tragic” loss for the sport. Earlier in the day, Busch’s family revealed he had been hospitalized with a “severe illness” and would miss race weekend activities at Charlotte Motor Speedway while undergoing treatment. “Our entire NASCAR family is heartbroken by the loss of Kyle Busch,” NASCAR, Richard Childress Racing, and the Busch family said in a joint statement. “A future Hall of Famer, Kyle was a rare talent, one who comes along once in a generation.” Busch spent more than two decades at the top level of stock car racing and became one of the most polarizing and successful drivers in NASCAR history. Known to fans as “Rowdy,” Busch won 63 Cup Series races, ranking ninth on NASCAR’s all-time wins list, and captured Cup championships in 2015 and 2019. He was also the winningest driver in the history of NASCAR’s secondary national series, recording 102 wins in what is now the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and 69 wins in the Craftsman Truck Series. Born in Las Vegas on May 2, 1985, Busch came from a racing family and followed his older brother, fellow NASCAR star Kurt Busch, into the sport. Busch debuted in the Cup Series in 2004 before becoming a full-time driver the following season with Hendrick Motorsports. After three seasons with Hendrick, Busch joined Joe Gibbs Racing in 2008, where he became the face of Toyota’s NASCAR program and developed into one of the sport’s defining stars. He later moved to Richard Childress Racing in 2023, driving the No. 8 Chevrolet during the final chapter of his career. Busch’s aggressive driving style and fiery personality made him one of NASCAR’s most divisive figures, earning both loud boos and an intensely loyal fanbase known as “Rowdy Nation.” Beyond his driving career, Busch also helped develop future NASCAR talent through Kyle Busch Motorsports, his successful Truck Series team that won 100 races and multiple championships. A cause of death has not yet been released. This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

An illegal immigrant released into the country under the Biden administration was accused of raping a 12-year-old girl in Missouri, resulting in her pregnancy, The Daily Wire has learned. Investigators said Colombian national Brayanne Escobar-Guarnizo even admitted to a detective that “we only had sex one time” and acknowledged possessing nude images of the young victim on his phone, according to the Springfield Daily Citizen. Authorities arrested Escobar-Guarnizo in Greene County, Missouri, in 2024 after the child’s mother contacted law enforcement upon discovering her daughter was pregnant, the local news outlet reported. The illegal immigrant was convicted on charges related to the sexual exploitation of a minor, which led to his sentence of 25 years in federal prison. He was also hit with a charge of first-degree statutory rape, according to the report. Detectives collected DNA from the unborn child, the victim, and Escobar-Guarnizo as part of the investigation. Test results later found that “Brayanne Escobar-Guarnizo cannot be excluded as the biological father of the child,” adding “The probability of paternity is 99.999%.” The victim reportedly later terminated the pregnancy. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) assisted local authorities in the investigation that led to Escobar-Guarnizo’s conviction and sentencing. “This dirtbag was charged with production of child pornography and sexual exploitation of a minor after he raped and impregnated a 12-year-old girl,” Acting Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement shared with The Daily Wire Thursday. “Thanks to the investigative work of ICE law enforcement officers and our state and local partners, this child predator has now been sentenced to 25 years behind bars,” she added. Bis also emphasized that the Trump administration has zero tolerance for criminal illegal immigrants. “This illegal alien NEVER should have been allowed into our country by the Biden Administration. Under Secretary Mullin, we will continue to target criminal illegal aliens and get them OUT of our communities,” she said. Escobar-Guarnizo entered the United States illegally under the Biden administration in 2023, according to the Department of Homeland Security. After serving his time behind bars, Escobar-Guarnizo is required to be placed on supervised release for an additional 10 years, according to a report. He was also referred to a sex offender treatment program. In such a case, the illegal immigrant will serve time for charges in the United States before facing potential deportation.

President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he might not make it to his eldest son’s destination wedding — planned for the Memorial Day holiday weekend — because it’s “not good timing” for him. Donald Trump Jr. plans to wed Bettina Anderson in a small ceremony on a private island in the Bahamas, Page Six reported on Tuesday, and the president said he was going to “try” to attend, but was not sure whether he’d be able to make it happen. “He’d like me to go, but it’s going to be just a small little private affair, and I’m going to try and make it,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday. His explanation was simple: the timing, given everything going on in Iran and around the world, was not great as far as he was concerned. “This is not good timing for me. Everything called Iran and other things,” he said, adding that there was no answer he could give that would not get him into trouble with someone. “That’s one I can’t win on. If I do attend, I get killed. If I don’t attend, I get killed,” he said, implying that there would likely be negative coverage from the press if he missed his son’s wedding — and no shortage of negative coverage if he left Washington to attend. Don Jr., 48, and Anderson, 39, have been engaged since December — and had initially considered a White House wedding, but ultimately decided that the optics would not be the greatest. “They’re very aware that a lavish wedding at the White House while people are dying wouldn’t be well-received,” an insider told Page Six. They opted instead for a smaller, more private ceremony — but the end result might be that they have to carry on in the president’s absence. “Hopefully they’re going to have a great marriage,” Trump added. News of the imminent ceremony comes just as Vanessa Trump, Don Jr.’s ex-wife, has announced a breast cancer diagnosis.