The Kamala Harris/Tim Walz campaign took advantage of Donald Trump‘s blunt “I hate Taylor Swift!” social media statement by releasing a rather longer Swift-related statement of its own — one in which they name-check 28 Swift titles or lyrics.
The release that was issued by the Democratic candidates’ campaign Sunday morning was titled “Trump’s Bad Week (Taylor’s Version).” It begins, “We’re pretty sure it’s Safe (& Sound) to say Donald Trump’s week has him Down Bad. Mr. Not-at-all-Fine [a permutation of the title of the Vault track ‘Mr. Perfectly Fine’] has spent this week working through his feelings, whining about his Champagne Problems…” It continues in that vein as it goes on to include more than two dozen references that will be instantly recognizable to the singer’s fans.
The statement does not outrightly call out the statement that Trump made on his Truth Social account Sunday morning — which read simply “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!” The sheer amount of song references in the Harris/Walz litany indicates a level of research that would indicate the statement was prepared in advance. But what might be considered an unforced error by Trump on Sunday morning in antagonizing Swifties provided the opposing campaign with a perfect opportunity to show some fans some love, in the midst of outrage.
The songs or albums referenced in the Harris-Walz campaign statement are: “Safe & Sound,” “Down Bad,” “Mr. Perfectly Fine” (changed to “Mr. Not-at-All Fine),” “Champagne Problems,” “The Man,” “Call It What You Want,” “Nothing New,” “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived,” “Shake It Off,” “Bad Blood,” “Better Than Revenge,” “Sad, Beautiful, Tragic,” “But Daddy, I Love Him” (via the “Oh my God, you should have seen the American people’s faces” line), “I Forgot That You Existed,” “Out of the Woods,” “Blank Space,” “Begin Again,” “Long Live,” “All Too Well,” “The Last Time,” “End Game,” “Breathe,” “The Story of Us,” “Back to December,” “Enchanted,” “Fearless,” “1989” and “We Are Never Getting Back Together” (invoked via the statement’s “like ever” capper).
One representative sample of the campaign statement reads: “His rambling, yelling and constant conspiracy theories have many asking of The Man is ‘too emotional’ to be president. Call It What You Want, but it’s Nothing New for the Smallest Man Who Ever Lived.”
That latter song title was becoming widely referenced Sunday morning, as Liz Cheney quote-tweeted Trump’s “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!” statement and simply added, “Says the smallest man who ever lived.”
The statement from the Harris campaign included headers like “Trump’s Sad, Beautiful, Tragic Week” — but with the “beautiful crossed out” — plus “And Oh My God You Should Have Seen the American People’s Faces.” Other passages in the statement included: “Trump and his inner circle of extremists can’t seem to Shake It Off as the Bad Blood between Trump, his running mate and his own party boils… Donald Trump’s week of whining and spouting conspiracy theories has voters on both sides of the aisle ready to Forget That He Existed. The American people want to be Out of the Woods of the chaos and division of the Trump era, leave behind the Blank Space of Trump’s broken promises, and Begin Again by electing Vice President Harris to ensure America’s future of opportunity is Long Lived… We can make sure The Story of Us is one of progress — and show Donald Trump we are not going Back to December of 2020. Like ever.”
Vice presidential candidate Walz had also referenced “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived” in a rally on Saturday night, although his verbiage in making the allusion was just slightly off.
“Here’s my life hack for all the guys out there,” Walz said at the event in Superior, Wisconsin. “Surround yourself with smart women and listen to them, and you’ll do just fine. That includes my fellow cat owner Taylor Swift, too, by the way. … It’s really great to have all of these women help us beat the smallest man in the world: Donald Trump.”
Trump’s “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!” declaration on Sunday morning — issued in his characteristic all-caps, with no other context — was puzzling to some political observers, since however upset he is with the superstar for endorsing Harris, there may be little upside in further antagonizing her hundreds of millions of fans, unless he sees a benefit in directly courting the Swift-hating incel crowd.
Earlier, Trump had been more measured in his response to Swift endorsing his opponents. “I was not a Taylor Swift fan,” he said in an interview on Fox & Friends Wednesday, the day after the presidential debate and Swift’s endorsement. “It was just a question of time. She couldn’t possibly endorse Biden… 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.”
Swift, of course, endorsed Joe Biden over Trump in the 2020 election cycle, with little effect on her in the marketplace, as her Eras Tour receipts are expected to more than double the all-time box-office record for a tour.
The Trump-Vance campaign has seemed flummoxed at times in its response to Swift’s Harris endorsement. JD Vance prompted jokes from Democrats for his lack of self-awareness of his own ticket when he said that most Americans are not “going to be influenced by a billionaire celebrity who I think is fundamentally disconnected from the interests and the problems of most Americans.”
Swift’s endorsement of Harris Tuesday night included a link to the U.S. government’s Vote.gov site for nonpartisan voter information. In the 24 hours after Swift’s post Tuesday evening, Vote.gov saw 405,999 visitors referred directly from the singer’s Instagram account, a spokesperson for the General Services Administration, which runs the site, told Variety. (The GSA was able to tally the visitors using a custom URL created and shared by Swift.) That’s more than 10 times the traffic generated in a comparable recent one-week period. It’s unknown how many of the visitors driven by Swift’s post subsequently registered to vote, since the site directs visitors to their state sites if they want to sign up to be added to voter rolls.
In the Tuesday night Instagram post that included the voter info link, Swift wrote, “I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them. 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. … I’ve done my research, and I’ve made my choice. Your research is all yours to do, and the choice is yours to make.
In a March 2023 poll conducted by Morning Consult, 53% of U.S. adults said they were Swift fans. Morning Consult’s poll found that among the 16% of American adults who considered themselves “avid” fans at the time, a slight majority were Democrats — 55% — with Republicans and independents accounting for 23% each. The poll was conducted just prior to the start of her blockbuster Eras Tour.
From Variety US