by
Cindy Engen,
PCDCC Communications Committee Member

Oops, he did it again. Donald Trump saw something on social media that was supposed to be satire and published it broadly with some less than true embellishments. He saw a fake photo of his celebrity endorsement and then said, “I accept.” I think he doesn’t understand what satire is.

The great Taylor Swift was chosen as his focal point here. Taylor Swift is a superstar who is also a sensitive and intelligent woman. Based on that, when I heard of her supposed endorsement of Trump (in an Uncle Sam outfit), I immediately went to the fact-checking websites.

There was a girl in a crowd on an X social media page who had a “Swiftees for Trump” t-shirt on. This photo was then given to someone who used AI to manipulate a video with Taylor Swift appearing to endorse Trump. It seems there is a group of this name that lists 3000 followers nationwide. In comparison, when I last checked, the group “Swiftees for Harris” had 60,000 followers.

In the past, Taylor has vocally supported causes such as equal pay for women, bills that protect women from violence, gay rights, and peaceful Black Lives Matter protests. She has endorsed Democratic Congressman Jim Cooper in her home state of Tennessee and made a nice endorsement of Biden/Harris in 2020. She has accused Trump in the past of “Stoking the fires of white supremacy and racism.” Does that sound like a Trumpee?

Taylor has said that she doesn’t really like promoting one candidate politically because people shouldn’t have to be pushed in a direction, and she doesn’t want to alienate half of her audience with an endorsement. Whether or not she makes a formal statement, I think I know how she feels about these candidates. And regarding the Swiftees, 60,000 is a bigger number than 3000 by a lot. You can fact-check that.