‘She’ll pay a price’: Donald Trump slams Taylor Swift over Kamala Harris endorsement
Taylor Swift’s latest move will further enrage Donald Trump, who took a swipe at the singer after she officially endorsed Kamala Harris for US president.
Entertainment
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The pop takeover of the US election is in full swing with Taylor Swift sending more than 300,000 potential voters to official government websites with her Harris-Walz endorsement.
Billboard reports that a custom URL created by the pop culture phenomenon on her Instagram stories to educate fans about voting in the Presidential election was swamped in the hours after she threw her support behind the Democrat campaign for the White House.
A spokesperson for the US General Services Commission, an independent government agency, said in the 15 hours after Swift’s post, 337,826 visitors were referred to Vote.gov from the URL she made and shared.
Vote.gov directed potential voters to their state election websites to register and get specific information on how to cast their ballot.
The Harris-Walz also enjoyed a Swift-inspired bump to their campaign funding with the friendship bracelets they put on their official store on pre-order now all sold out.
Swift has already picked up an award and won seven out of 12 nominations at the MTV VMA Awards in New York on Thursday.
It comes as Donald Trump warned the singer she would “pay a price” for her endorsement of Kamala Harris.
The former president, who initially said he had “no idea” about Swift’s comments in the immediate aftermath of the debate, broke his silence the next morning to say he was “not a fan” of the singer.
“It was just a question of time. She couldn’t possibly endorse Biden. You look at Biden, you couldn’t possibly endorse him,” Mr Trump said.
“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,” he added, suggesting Republican voters would not buy her music as a result.
The timing of Swift’s endorsement ignited speculation of an orchestrated public relations move in an attempt to shake off negative publicity from her friendship with Brittany Mahomes, wife of the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
While Mrs Mahomes hasn’t publicly supported Mr Trump, she has come under fire from Swift fans for liking the former president’s Instagram posts. She later posted that her “hater adults” had issues from childhood.
The friendship appeared to fray after the public stoush as Mrs Mahomes was seen in a separate NFL box than Swift and the family of her boyfriend Travis Kelce, the Kansas City Chief’s tight end.
The Trump campaign had avoided commenting on Swift’s endorsement of Ms Harris, with spokesman Brian Hughes saying only “I’m not a teeny-bopper”.
But Mr Trump, in an interview with Fox & Friends, took aim at Swift through the wife of her boyfriend’s best friend.
“I actually like Mrs Mahomes much better if you want to know the truth. She’s a big Trump fan,” Mr Trump said.
“But I like Brittany, I think Brittany’s great. Brittany got a lot of news last week. She’s a big MAGA fan. That’s the one I like much better than Taylor Swift.”
While Swift endorsed Joe Biden in 2020, the timing of her Harris endorsement after the debate came as a surprise to the Democratic candidate’s campaign.
She said she was compelled to speak her truth after AI-generated images of her endorsing Mr Trump were shared on social media, which the former president has said he did not generate.
“I don’t know anything about them, other than somebody else generated them,” Mr Trump said previously. “AI is always very dangerous in that way.”
The images were used by the group “Swifties for Trump” in their endorsement of the Republican candidate.
The group said they respected Swift’s right to support her favoured candidate, but that it would not sway their support for Mr Trump “in the least”.
“Swifties for Trump was never about Taylor. We never pressured her, or expected her, to endorse Trump,” the group said in a statement.
“But let’s be real about something. Taylor Swift is not your average American,” the group continued, adding: “She can afford to vote on emotion and identity politics. We CANNOT AFFORD for Kamala to be elected president. We cannot afford the rapid inflation, crime, and illegal immigration coming into our country.”
MEGYN KELLY SAYS ‘F YOU, TAYLOR SWIFT’
Megyn Kelly echoed Mr Trump’s threat that singer will pay the price, adding “F*** you, Taylor Swift”.
“You can kiss your sales to the Republican audience goodbye, Taylor; hope you enjoyed them while you had them,” Ms Kelly said during her reaction to the presidential debate.
Swift endorsed Ms Harris in part because of her running mate Tim Walz, who she said has been standing up for LGBTQ+ rights and a woman’s right to her own body.
“This is disgusting. If she wants to vote Harris-Walz, she can do it all she wants but to say the reason she is doing it is because of Tim Walz’s stance on LGBTQ … F*** you, Taylor Swift,” she said.
“And F*** all of the people who want to see these children have body parts chopped off and watch them sterilized under the age of consent and then will ride off to their multi-gazillion dollar mansions, never to think of them again.”
"You can kiss your sales to the Republican audience goodbye, Taylor. Hope you enjoyed them while you had them...This pair - Taylor and her boyfriend Travis Kelce - are the epitome of elite snobs."
— The Megyn Kelly Show (@MegynKellyShow) September 11, 2024
- @megynkelly on Taylor Swift's endorsement
Download: https://t.co/Ug9rU1yVsKpic.twitter.com/ak4pa0ExoZ
SWIFT ENDORSES HARRIS AFTER DEBATE
After weeks of speculation about when she would cast her public vote on the US election, Taylor Swift has endorsed Kamala Harris for President with a social media post after the televised debate.
The influential pop superstar, whose every post is imbued with Easter eggs of meaning, included a photo of her with her beloved cat Benjamin Button.
That photo, from the cover of Time Magazine’s Person of the Year issue, was a clever swipe at Trump’s running mate J.D Vance’s infamous comment about senior female Democrat politicians being “childless cat ladies”.
Swift also addressed the fake AI posts boosted by Trump which implied she supported his campaign as did her fans.
But the Shake It Off cultural commander wasn’t having it with her lengthy post uploaded just minutes after the televised debate between Trump and Harris.
“Recently I was made aware that AI of ‘me’ falsely endorsing Donald Trump’s presidential run was posted to his site.,” she said.
“It really conjured up my fears around AI, and the dangers of spreading misinformation.
“It brought me to the conclusion that I need to be very transparent about my actual plans for this election as a voter. The simplest way to combat misinformation is with the truth.”
Swift told her hundreds of millions of fans on social media that she had watched and read “everything” being advanced by 2024 candidates before making her decision to publicly endorse Harris.
The All Too Well singer had been the subject of constant speculation and pressure to speak publicly about the election as she commands a huge influence over generations of potential first-time voters.
She backed Biden in 2020, denouncing Trump’s divisive politics and erosion of female reproduction rights and support for the LGBTQ community.
Swift praised Harris as a “steady-handed, gifted leader”.
“I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election. I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them,” Swift posted.
“I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos.
“I was so heartened and impressed by her selection of running mate @timwalz, who has been standing up for LGBTQ+ rights, IVF, and a woman’s right to her own body for decades.”
Tim Walz was being interviewed by MSNBC host Rachel Maddow when Swift gave the Democrat ticket her vote on social media.
Walz touched his heart and beamed as Maddow read out Swift’s post.
“I am incredibly grateful, first of all, to Taylor Swift,” Walz said. “I say that as a cat owner, a fellow cat owner. That was eloquent, and that was clear. And that’s the type of courage we need in America to stand up,“ he said.
Swift had also included in her post links for her fans to register to vote and find early voting polls.
The Grammy-winning pop phenomenon may have chosen to make her voting declaration to quell the online war between Swifties about her friendship with Brittany Mahomes.
The Chiefs WAG, married to Travis Kelce’s teammate and star quarterback Patrick Mahomes, ignited an online firestorm in August for “liking” a post from Trump titled: “The 2024 GOP Platform” which outlined his priorities for his re-election campaign.
While the two WAGS were both at the opening match, they watched their men play from different suites.
But they were reunited in New York just days later, watching the US Open final and then heading out on a double date with their partners, signalling all is well despite their political differences.
Swifties also joked that Swift had made her post in a timely fashion after Trump’s unverified claim during the debate that migrants are eating pets, including cats and dogs.
“Taylor Swift heard people were eating cats and she stood tf up,” commented a Swifty on X.
Harris gave a sly nod to Swift’s support when she walked offstage to her song The Man after her post-debate speech to the party faithful.
📹 | Kamala Harris walked off stage at her post-debate rally to ‘The Man’ by Taylor Swift
— Taylor Swift News (@TSwiftNZ) September 11, 2024
pic.twitter.com/JbG2aFJs6y
A surprise merchandise item suddenly became available for pre-order on the Harris-Walz official store after Swift’s endorsement – fundraising friendship bracelets.
The campaign website listed the bracelets, made from clay beads rather than plastic, for US$20 with an “expected” release date of September 24.
Later billionaire political provocateur Elon Musk congratulated Swift on her timely masterstroke of publicly backing Harris after the presidential debate.
Musk cheekily told Swift “you win” on his social media platform X and then bizarrely offered to father a child for her and protect her cats.
“Fine Taylor … you win. I will give you a child and guard your cats with my life,” he posted.
The general consensus of Swifties was Musk’s post was “creepy” and “weird.”
What did Donald Trump post about Taylor Swift?
Last month, the former president shared a slew of AI-generated images falsely depicting Taylor Swift and her fans endorsing his campaign for president.
Mr Trump’s photoshopped image he reposted showed an Uncle Sam-inspired depiction of her with the words “Taylor wants you to vote for Donald Trump.”
Who is Taylor Swift voting for in 2024?
Swift endorsed Kamala Harris for president, posting on Instagram shortly after the US presidential debate
“I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election,” she wrote.
“I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them.”
How has Taylor Swift voted in the past?
Swift endorsed US President Joe Biden in 2020.
“Gonna be watching and supporting @KamalaHarris by yelling at the TV a lot,” she posted on X the night of the vice presidential debate in 2020.
Originally published as ‘She’ll pay a price’: Donald Trump slams Taylor Swift over Kamala Harris endorsement
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