According to a new report, Donald Trump merely guessed that Taylor Swift probably “doesn’t like” him and expressed surprise that the pop mega-star could be liberal, wondering if the pro-Democrat, pro-Joe-Biden sentiments she has expressed in the past were “legitimate.”
But it’s perhaps no surprise that Trump is being disingenuous when he says he isn’t sure what Swift thinks of him or when he questions her commitment to certain political views. In fact, Swift has made it very clear that she’s held him in little regard, including in May 2020 when she said that the 45th president had spent his entire administration, from 2017 to 2021, “stoking the fires of white supremacy and racism.”
Former U.S. President Donald Trump sits in the courtroom during his hush money trial at Manhattan Criminal Court on May 30, 2024 in New York City. Michael Cohen’s $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels is tied to former U.S. President Trump’s 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first of his criminal cases to go to trial. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images/TNS)
Five months later, the woman who is arguably the most powerful entertainer on the planet right now endorsed Biden’s campaign to take the White House from Trump. Swift shared her 2020 endorsement on X and said in an interview with V magazine: “I will proudly vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in this year’s presidential election. Under their leadership, I believe America has a chance to start the healing process it so desperately needs.”
Trump, therefore, has long known where Swift stands politically and that she “doesn’t like” him. Perhaps that’s why he decided to adopt a defensive, patronizing tone when talking about her to Variety co-editor-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh for a forthcoming book, “Apprentice in Wonderland: How Donald Trump and Mark Burnett Took America Through the Looking Glass.” A passage from Setoodeh’s book was excerpted in Variety Monday.
In the book interview, which took place in November 2023, Setoodeh asked Trump what he thought of Swift, whom the journalist referred to as “the biggest celebrity of our times,” Variety reported.
Trump acknowledged that the 14-time Grammy winner has “great star quality.” But the former reality TV star — who was recently convicted of all 34 felony counts related to hush-money payments made to hide his alleged tryst with porn star Stormy Daniels — reduced Swift’s “star quality” to her physical appearance. He said, “I think she’s beautiful — very beautiful! I find her very beautiful..”
Kansas City Chiefs’ Travis Kelce (87) and his girlfriend Taylor Swift share a kiss after Super Bowl LVIII at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on Sunday, Feb. 11, 2024. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group/TNS)
Trump then said, “I think she’s liberal. She probably doesn’t like Trump. I hear she’s very talented. I think she’s very beautiful, actually — unusually beautiful!”
At this point, Trump admitted that he didn’t “know” Swift’s music “well” and referred to her as a “country star,” saying he didn’t think that a country star could “be successful being liberal.”
When Setoodeh informed Trump that Swift had shifted from country to pop more than a decade ago, the former president expressed dismay about another country singer — Garth Brooks — being “liberal.” Trump asked, “How does it happen?” Trump then said, “It’s one of those things …. ” before his thoughts “trailed off,” according to Setoodeh.
In his interview with Setoodeh, Trump didn’t address the fact that he took to his Truth Social platform in February, ahead of Super Bowl LVIII, to essentially warn Swift against voting for Biden again in 2024, Politico reported.
Trump issued his warning a few hours before Swift was expected to feature prominently on TV during the game, which her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, was playing in.
Trump then claimed credit for Swift’s financial success, calling a possible endorsement of Biden “disloyal to the man who made her so much money.”
“I signed and was responsible for the Music Modernization Act for Taylor Swift and all other Musical Artists. Joe Biden didn’t do anything for Taylor, and never will,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, referencing legislation he signed in 2018 meant to modernize copyright laws.
“There’s no way she could endorse Crooked Joe Biden, the worst and most corrupt President in the History of our Country, and be disloyal to the man who made her so much money,” Trump continued. “Besides that, I like her boyfriend, Travis, even though he may be a Liberal, and probably can’t stand me!”
In early January, it was reported by the New York Times that Biden’s campaign had been looking to court Swift’s support, Politico said. The New York Times report fueled a series of conspiracy theories in right-wing circles, including one alleging that the NFL postseason was rigged to get the Chiefs into the Super Bowl so that Swift could deliver her endorsement in front of the game’s massive TV audience.
Swift made no such endorsement at the Super Bowl, and has yet to say whether she’ll again support the Biden-Harris ticket.
For the first decade of Swift’s career, she kept quiet about her political views, leading to rumors that she was a secret Republican. But in 2016, she publicly endorsed Tennessee Democratic candidates Phil Bredesen for Senate and Jim Cooper for House of Representatives in 2018.
Her support for Biden and Harris in 2020 came in the wake of the George Floyd protests that same year. In a tweet, she not only accused Trump of “stoking the fires of white supremacy and racism,” she also proclaimed, “We will vote you out in November.”
In her interview with V, Swift also appeared to criticize Trump’s actions and policies limiting the rights of women and LGBTQ+ people and his administration’s handling of the COVID-19 response.
Swift said, “The change we need most is to elect a president who recognizes that people of color deserve to feel safe and represented, that women deserve the right to choose what happens to their bodies, and that the LGBTQIA+ community deserves to be acknowledged and included. Everyone deserves a government that takes global health risks seriously and puts the lives of its people first. The only way we can begin to make things better is to choose leaders who are willing to face these issues and find ways to work through them.”
