Donald Trump, who was once filmed listening to “Blank Space” in his car, has criticized Taylor Swift for her surprise post-debate endorsement of Kamala Harris, saying that she’ll “probably pay a price for it in the marketplace.”
When Trump called into Fox & Friends on Wednesday morning, he was asked about Swift’s late-night Instagram post in support of Harris, in which she decried the AI-generated images of her that the former president shared on social media to falsely claiming her endorsement, and applauded Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz’s stellar record on LGBTQ+ rights.
Despite Trump’s previously expressed affinity for Swift’s music — her 2018 endorsement of a Tennessee Democratic Senate candidate Phil Bredesen famously only made him like her music “about 25% less”— he was quick to deny his allegiance, claiming he is “not a Taylor Swift fan,” and expressing support instead for her fellow Kansas City Chiefs WAG Brittany Mahomes, who recently liked one of his Instagram posts about the GOP campaign platform.
“Well, I actually like Mrs. Mahomes much better if you wanna know the truth, she’s a big Trump fan. I was not a Taylor Swift fan,” he told the Fox & Friends hosts.
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Swift, who is dating Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, has faced extreme public scrutiny in recent days over her friendship with Mahomes. After speculation that Mahomes’ Instagram activity on the Trump post had led to a rift between the two women, they were photographed at the U.S. Open on September 5 smiling and hugging each other. That moment led to widespread outcry from the pop star’s LGBTQ+ fans, especially since the post Mahomes liked referenced GOP campaign promises to “keep men OUT of women’s sports” and “cut federal funding for any school pushing critical race theory, radical gender ideology and other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content on our children.”
On Fox & Friends, Trump went on to say that Swift’s endorsement was “just a question of time,” since “you couldn’t possibly endorse Biden,” despite the fact that she did indeed openly support Biden for president in 2020. “But she’s a very liberal person. She seems to always endorse a Democrat, and she’ll probably pay a price for it in the marketplace,” Trump continued.
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Considering that Swift is the highest earning female musician in the world and has already broken the record for the first concert tour to gross $1 billion, among numerous other firsts and precedents, she’ll probably be just fine, especially since the peak of her career came following her vocal criticism of Trump on social media.
Trump, on the other hand, may ”pay a price” from Swift’s endorsement. As one of the most influential musicians in the world, Swift throwing her weight behind the Democratic ticket is the kind of publicity money just can’t buy. In September 2023, NPR reported that over 35,000 people registered to vote immediately after the singer made an Instagram post encouraging fans to do so.
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