by Taylor Swift’s trip to the US Open Men’s Final on Sunday looked, at first glance, like a typical day in the life of the world’s biggest pop star. Swift was joined in her VIP box at Flushing Meadows by her boyfriend Travis Kelce, the Haim sisters and Kelce’s Kansas City Chiefs teammate Patrick Mahomes – and to the fury of Swifties around the world, his wife Brittany.
For those unfamiliar with the inner circle of Swift’s social circle, her decision to go out with Kelce’s friends was less a fun day than a controversial event. Texas native Brittany, 29, who has been dating star NFL quarterback Patrick since high school, drew the ire of social media users last month when she “liked” a public Instagram post with Donald Trump which included 20 of his promises to America. . These included: “Perform the largest deportation operation in American history” and “Cut federal funding to any school pushing Critical Race Theory, Radical Gender Ideology”.
Refusing to apologise, former athlete-turned-entrepreneur Brittany liked to continue asking for messages from other Republicans who praised her for not supporting her, before sharing a post from Christian blogger Shane Pruitt on Instagram Stories reading: “Contrary to the tone of the world today … You can disagree with someone, and still love them. You can have different opinions, and still be kind.” The call for kindness was echoed by some fans in Swift’s camp, who insisted the singer could be friends with whoever she wanted, from all sides of the political divide. But last week, Trump added more fuel to the fire when he posted on Truth Social: “I want to thank the beautiful Brittany Mahomes for defending me so strongly.”
Given the controversy, many Swifties breathed a sigh of relief when the public did not have a public relationship with Briton on his appearance at the Chiefs’ first game of the season last Thursday: the 34-year-old may have been leaving from herself afterwards. seeing the concern of his followers, they wrote online. Maybe she was going to eliminate Kamala Harris for the presidency (she supported Joe Biden four years ago, and even baked cookies with “Biden Harris 2020”). But then came the Open, and the event became a platform for what critics interpreted as Swift’s continued political insanity.
Despite her unrivaled influence – she has 284 million followers on Instagram and is the most streamed artist in the world on Spotify – Swift chose to remain silent on the question of whether Donald or Kamala should reach the White House in 2024. Rumors that she would appear at the Democratic National Convention to sing a song with Beyoncé were false; Even when Trump was sharing potentially deep AI-generated images of Swifties wearing Maga T-shirts he was silent, rather than stopping and refraining from Swift’s team.
As a result, his followers have taken the campaign into their own hands. The non-profit organization “Swifties4Kamala” has decided to campaign for Democrats without her, and has already raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations. Elsewhere, popular fan accounts on X and Instagram threatened to stop listening to her music if she didn’t support Harris.
It’s easy to dismiss these threats as the empty, incoherent ramblings of the Gen Z “awakening”, which will have little impact on the richest woman in the Community. But Swift has a special place in the industry because of her level of fame and her close relationship with her fans, who see her as a moral force as well as a singer. It’s now a double-edged sword: on one side are her material successes – her record-breaking Eras world tour, 14 Grammy awards, billions in the bank – and on the other lies her constant need. to be seen as a force for good beyond her music. Her refusal to cut ties with Briton is in stark contrast to how quickly her relationship with 1975 frontman Matty Healy broke down last year after fans accused him of being racist.
When Swift publicly endorsed Biden in 2020 her career was in a very different state. Her seventh album Lover, released the year before, was not as good as expected. That same year, she released her ultra-personal Netflix documentary Miss Americana, officially ending her decision to stay “out” of national politics.
Today, the singer has never been more famous, or more marketable – which is also why his fans are becoming more twitchy about his lack of endorsement of the Harris campaign. Swift’s political influence takes precedence: last year, her call for fans to register to vote saw 35,000 sign up within 24 hours, and her vocal support for women’s and LGBTQ+ issues has made her something of a leader for American women. left wing. Before Swift was the voice of liberals, however, she was the quintessential all-American girl—a country singer admired Left and Right. Raised in small-town Pennsylvania by her businessman Scott, who later moved the family to Nashville to promote Swift’s career, her early music was filled with pious religious messages and stories of falling in love with the boy next door .
Few in Nashville could have predicted that she would later shed this conservative image to become a commercial pop star. It was a change that those closest to the singer criticized, and they feared that any open support from the Democrats would damage her reputation among the US Right; in Miss Americana, her father and adviser express concern that her future tours could alienate her core fans if she were to publicly criticize Trump.
Some fans have argued that his lack of endorsement is due to increased safety concerns: the final London shows of the Eras tour were marred by the cancellation of his shows in Vienna. But for others, Swift’s refusal to “pick a side” in what is shaping up to be the most bitter election in American history is a betrayal of the sharpest kind: a woman with all the money and power her world, as she chooses to ride the world. storm in her ivory tower.
