Donald Trump tried to act like he didn’t care that Taylor Swift again broke the internet by posting her endorsement of Kamala Harris Tuesday night, minutes after he and his Democratic opponent in the presidential race stepped off the debate stage in Philadelphia.
Trump, who had appeared rattled during much of Harris’ forceful and combative debate performance, called into Fox News’ Fox and Friends Wednesday morning and invoked this past weekend’s mini-controversy over Swift’s friendship with Brittany Mahomes, the wife of Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who the GOP candidate insisted is “a big Trump fan.”
“I actually like Mrs. Mahomes much better, if you want to know the truth,” the former president said, warning that “liberal” Swift would “pay a price” at “the marketplace.” But as much as Trump tried to brush off Swift’s Instagram endorsement of Harris, which garnered more than 1 million likes within 13 minutes of being posted, the pop mega-star’s move left his supporters fuming, just as his prominent allies despaired that he had lost the debate.
Right-wing pundit Megyn Kelly grumbled that Swift, one of America’s most celebrated pop-culture icons with an enormous global following, “decided it would be fun to crap on Donald Trump when she perceived him to be down.”
But it remains to be seen whether Kelly, as well as Swift’s legion of fans, are giving the pop star’s endorsement too much power. Once again, the question arises in a presidential election over whether the support of an A-lister can help their preferred candidate win the race.
On one hand, Swift’s endorsement “offers Harris an unrivaled celebrity backer and a tremendous shot of adrenaline to her campaign, especially with the younger voters she has been trying to attract,” the New York Times reported. Swift’s broad cultural appeal has become apparent over the past year in the way she’s become a force in the NFL’s growing popularity with young women because of her relationship with Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.
But others argue that celebrity endorsements “have limited power to sway races,” with critic, essayist and self-described Swiftie B.D. McClay expressing skepticism, in a recent New York Times op-ed, that stars have “the amount of persuasive power that some Americans apparently wish they had.”
Nonetheless, Swift clearly hoped to do some persuading Tuesday night, writing to her 283 Instagram followers: “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 signed her post as “Childless Cat Lady,” a pointed reference to Trump’s running mate JD Vance and his notorious statements that demeaned women, cat owners and couples without children. Swift accompanied her endorsement with a photo of herself with one of her cats, Benjamin Button, her pet Ragdoll.
The news of Swift’s endorsement delighted Walz in real time, who learned about it during a post-debate interview with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow.
“I don’t think you know about this but this was just posted online by a woman you might have heard of whose name is Taylor Swift,” Maddow told the Minnesota governor.
“I am incredibly grateful to Taylor,” Walz said, touching his heart. “I say also that as a fellow cat owner,” he said humorously.
Swift’s post ended weeks of speculation about whether she would support Harris’ bid to become the first woman elected president of the United States. This speculation began almost as soon as President Biden announced July 21 that he was abandoning his re-election bid. The next day, Yale historian Timothy Snyder speculated on X about the possibility of Swift endorsing the former San Francisco prosecutor and California attorney general. The “Will Taylor Swift Endorse Kamala Harris?” headlines began to proliferate.
At the time, Vanity Fair writer Kase Wickman assessed Swift as “the influencer to end all influencers, able to wield her massive popularity and power effectively enough to impact economies and legislation, moviemaking practices and album release strategies.” Wickman also cited Forbes’ designation of Swift as the fifth most powerful woman in the world, arguing that her that endorsement would be “an incomparable asset” to the former California senator’s presidential bid.
For the first part of Swift’s career, which has spanned country and pop music, she was reluctant to speak out on politics. But that changed in 2018, when she endorsed Democratic candidates in her home state of Tennessee. In an interview with Vogue in 2019, Swift expressed regret about not supporting Hillary Clinton in 2016 but feared her support would backfire and Trump would try “weaponizing the idea of the celebrity endorsement.”
Swift didn’t let the opportunity to endorse candidates in 2020 pass, and she “proudly” endorsed the Biden and Harris ticket, saying that the two in the White House would help heal the country after Trump stoked “the fires of white supremacy and racism” during his “entire” presidency from, 2017 to 2021.
McClay, the Swiftie essayist, pointed out that Swift’s candidates in the 2018 Tennessee races lost, while others have noted that support from another pop culture icon, Beyonce, didn’t help Clinton in 2016.
On the other hand, Biden and Harris won in 2020, though it’s hard to say whether Swift had anything to do with that. But then again, McClay and other political observers have said that Swift wields political power when it comes to encouraging young people to register to vote. Such influence could prove consequential in tight races in battleground states. Last year, NBC also ran a poll that reported that Swift continues to transcend America’s deep ideological divide, with nearly 80% of registered voters viewing her favorably or neutrally.
“Swifities” were trending on X Wednesday, with the Swifties for Kamala account, which is not affiliated with the singer, expressing delight over the icon’s endorsement, saying they never doubted it would come come “at the right time.” They also predicted that the singer’s “words will have a positive impact and encourage more people to join us in our mission to elect Vice President Harris.”
For her part, Harris has embraced her pop culture affiliations with Beyonce, Megan Thee Stallion and other stars, and her campaign showed its pleasure over Swift’s endorsement in a notable way Tuesday night. It played the singer’s feminist anthem “The Man” as Harris exited her debate watch party, People reported.
“Hard work is good work and we will win, we will win,” Harris told the crowd. She gave them high fives as the chorus of Swift’s track started playing with the lyrics, “I’m so sick of running as fast as I can / Wondering if I’d get there quicker if I was a man.”
