Taylor Swift made it clear in 2020 that she wasn’t voting for Donald Trump, but now, in this crucial pre-election period in what could be called one of the closest presidential races in U.S. history, Miss Americana has decided to remain neutral, evidently. And that neutrality is slowly but surely beginning to haunt her image on social media.
I don’t know what it says about humanity and the mire it currently finds itself in, but nothing in our society today is, by choice or otherwise, apolitical. And when you happen to be the biggest mega-superstar on the planet with tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions, of dedicated fans observing your every move, memorizing your every word, and well-nigh imitating your every action, any stance you might take will sweep the landscape in deafening reverberations. But perhaps even more deafening — when you happen to be that famous or possess that kind of influence — is the lack of any stance.
Ask Donald Trump, because if he can’t get that endorsement consensually, he’s going to mislead your following by posting AI-generated images of you and him being best buddies. And so, amid a new controversy wave involving Swift cozying up to an apparent Trump sympathizer, many people now find themselves awkwardly going, “Wait, wasn’t Taylor Swift a Democrat?”
Is Taylor Swift a left-wing liberal?
While the T-Swizzle has mostly remained nonpartisan throughout her career, keenly understanding the business risk of opening that can of worms, she changed her approach during Donald Trump’s administration by endorsing a Democratic nominee in the Senate race in 2018.
“Let’s say that I like Taylor’s music about 25% less now, okay?” Trump said in response back then. Taylor herself maintained it’s important that she stay “on the right side of history” in the Miss Americana documentary, and took it a step further in by openly criticizing Trump and accusing him of racism during the 2020 presidential race.
Unless something has changed over the past four years, all of this seems to suggest that Taylor Swift is a Democrat, and even her music, incorporating pro-LGBT+ motifs, leans toward progressive ideologies.
That, of course, begs the question of why she’s decided to remain silent in the Harris v Trump race. It might have to do with a business-savvy unwillingness to alienate more conservative parts of her fanbase. It might be that Taylor is waiting for an opportune moment to maximize the effect of her endorsement. Whatever the case, I hope we’ll have a definitive answer in less than two months.