In a salient approach to a presidential election, it may be commonplace for a potential candidate to throw verbal daggers at their opponent, perhaps even the incumbent. But alas, this is far from a 'normal' presidential election (whatever that is nowadays) and your average potential candidate. This is Donald Trump in a splintered America fumbling its way through the age of opinion-based facts taking aim at Taylor Swift, a Grammy award-winning pop star who has defied opinion to become a cultural tour de force.
On February 11, the former president took to his Truth Social platform to call the 'Red' singer 'disloyal' as well as saying there was 'no way she [Swift] could endorse Crooked Joe Biden'.
Trump, who was recently ordered to pay $83.3 million (£66 million) to E. Jean Carroll after being found liable for sexual abuse and defamation for denying her rape allegation, claimed that the passing of the Music Modernisation Act in 2018 ‘made her [Swift] so much money’. One of the lawyers involved in the passing of the act under Trump's presidency, which updated copyright issues for musicians in the streaming era, asserted to Variety the following day that Trump ‘did nothing on our legislation except sign it’.
FIND OUT MORE ON ELLE COLLECTIVE
Read between the lines of Trump's latest diatribe and the message is clear: this is a man fearful of Swift's very real and very tangible power. When, to nod to former FLOTUS Michelle Obama, Team Trump 'goes low', it's because you are considered a very real threat to its lifeblood, which is fear and division. Yet Trump's acerbic words to Swift aren't exactly new, given he has historically referred to various women as ‘dogs’, ‘bimbos’ and ‘lowlifes’. Meanwhile, Swift is, ahem, Fearless (Taylor’s Version) in her pursuit of her own all-American strain of authenticity. But surely, you may be wondering, a country-turned-pop musician known for singing about broken hearts and popularising beaded friendship bracelets can’t actually swing a presidential election?
The figures speak for themselves. A survey from last year, which was conducted before the launch of Swift’s record-breaking Eras tour that has since become the highest-grossing tour of all time and cemented her status as a billionaire, found 53% of American adults are fans of Swift and 16% identify as ‘avid’ fans. Her appeal, the survey concluded, stretches far and wide across the political spectrum. She has as many male fans as she does female, and almost as many Republicans as Democrats, including people alive in every one of the five generations that currently comprise society. Her constituency of influence has serious sway while others' do not.
This year, while Swift is yet to endorse any particular candidate, ahead of Super Tuesday, she shared a message to her Instagram urging her fans to register to vote. 'I wanted to remind you guys to vote the people who most represent YOU into power. If you haven't already, make a plan to vote today,' she wrote. 'Whether you're in Tennessee or somewhere else in the US, check your polling places and times at vote.org.'
Her message prompting her fans to register to vote is no small feat. In September 2023, Swift posted another message to her Instagram account encouraging her 272 million followers to register to vote. The post led to more than 35,000 registrations on the non-partisan website Vote.org, a 23% increase on the year before.
In the last election, Swift backed President Biden, who won 57% of women voters and two-thirds of women's votes between the ages of 18 and 29. Team Biden is said to be seeking her support for this year's election too after a poll found that 18% of American voters – some 30 million adults – would be more likely to vote for a candidate Swift endorsed.
The singer has also spoken out publicly about her political stance. 'In the past I’ve been reluctant to publicly voice my political opinions, but due to several events in my life and in the world in the past two years, I feel very differently about that now,' Swift wrote on Instagram, ahead of Tennessee's midterm elections in 2018. 'Running for Senate in the state of Tennessee is a woman named Marsha Blackburn. As much as I have in the past and would like to continue voting for women in office, I cannot support Marsha Blackburn. Her voting record in Congress appalls and terrifies me. She voted against equal pay for women. She voted against the Reauthorisation of the Violence Against Women Act, which attempts to protect women from domestic violence, stalking, and date rape. She believes businesses have a right to refuse service to gay couples. She also believes they should not have the right to marry. These are not MY Tennessee values.'
Swift also publicly denounced Donald Trump in 2020 ahead of the election in which he was eventually defeated. ‘After stoking the fires of white supremacy and racism your entire presidency, you have the nerve to feign moral superiority before threatening violence?’ Swift wrote on X. ”When the looting starts the shooting starts”??? We will vote you out in November.’
Swift might not have the deciding vote in who people vote for, but in an election that could very much rely on marginal majorities, she clearly has the power to encourage people to vote. While in her 2020 Netflix documentary, Miss Americana, her team expressed concern at her expressing her political opinions, four years later, she is now deemed by many to be too commercially successful to be truly vulnerable to endorsing a candidate.
There’s also the sway she’s flexed in encouraging her legion of fans to engage with American football (her boyfriend Travis Kelce is a tight-end for the Kansas City Chiefs). According to a recent survey, 20% of millennials and 24% of Gen Z said that Swift’s ‘influence’ is making them care about football. This year’s Super Bowl, which Kelce competed in and Swift attended to much fanfare, was the most-watched broadcast in US television history since the 1969 moon landing. Should this same influence be segued into politics, it’s no doubt that a Swift endorsement is as coveted as a ticket to one of her sold-out Eras shows. The Swift seal of approval would be enough to attract headlines, stimulate conversation, inject relevance and, perhaps most importantly for the state of America’s democracy, massage energy into an increasingly apathetic electorate. Where Swift goes, the centre of gravity soon follows.
‘I hope the Biden campaign figures out how to coax Taylor Swift out of her den,’ Jon Lovett said recently on Pod Save America. ‘But it’s also on Taylor Swift. You built up a ton of goodwill. Time to spend it. Your country needs you’.
During the 2016 presidential election, the public endorsements of Madonna, Bruce Springsteen and Lady Gaga did little to push Hillary Clinton over the edge. But none of those endorsements came from a country-turned-pop musician known for singing about broken hearts and popularising beaded friendship bracelets — and therein lies her power.
ELLE Collective is a new community of fashion, beauty and culture lovers. For access to exclusive content, events, inspiring advice from our Editors and industry experts, as well the opportunity to meet designers, thought-leaders and stylists, become a member today HERE.
