Former U.S. president Donald Trump could be trying to get an endorsement from Taylor Swift ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
In a Variety exclusive, Trump gushed about the pop musician in the upcoming book Apprentice in Wonderland: How Donald Trump and Mark Burnett Took America Through the Looking Glass, whilst criticizing Swift for her alleged political views.
"I think she’s beautiful — very beautiful! I find her very beautiful. I think she’s liberal. She probably doesn’t like Trump. I hear she’s very talented," Trump told the book's author, Ramin Setoodeh, in an interview recorded last November. "I think she’s very beautiful, actually — unusually beautiful!"
"She is liberal, or is that just an act?” Trump added. “She’s legitimately liberal? It’s not an act? It surprises me that a country star can be successful being liberal."
While Setoodeh acknowledged Swift's 2012 LP Red as the singer's last true country album, Trump brushed off the comment, responding, "Garth Brooks is liberal. Explain that! How does it happen?"
Since the 2016 election, Swift has steered towards being politically outspoken, supporting LGBTQIA+ and human rights, which she would later tackle in her 2020 concert film Miss Americana.
"Back in the [2016] presidential election, I was in such a horrendous place that I wasn’t going to pop my head out," she said in the film. "These aren’t your dad’s celebrities and these aren’t your dad’s Republicans… I need to be on the right side of history."
As for going after Trump, in May 2020, Swift sided with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, just months before they would win that year's election.
“After stoking the fires of white supremacy and racism your entire presidency, you have the nerve to feign moral superiority before threatening violence? ‘When the looting starts the shooting starts’??? We will vote you out in November,” Swift wrote.
One year later, Swift told Vanity Fair that the "Trump presidency forced me to lean in and educate myself."
"I started talking to my family and friends about politics and learning as much as I could about where I stand," she continued. "I’m proud to have moved past fear and self-doubt, and to endorse and support leadership that moves us beyond this divisive, heartbreaking moment in time."
But Swift's stance hasn't prevented Trump from pursuing her endorsement. In February, on Truth Social, Trump touted that he "was responsible for the Music Modernization Act for Taylor Swift and all other Musical Artists." "Joe Biden didn’t do anything for Taylor, and never will,” Trump continued about the legislation he signed in 2018.
"There’s no way she could endorse Crooked Joe Biden, the worst and most corrupt President in the History of our Country, and be disloyal to the man who made her so much money," Trump continued. "Besides that, I like her boyfriend, Travis, even though he may be a Liberal, and probably can’t stand me!"
