The debate was watched by millions of people last Tuesday. Of those people, was international superstar Taylor Swift. Minutes after the debate, Swift took to her instagram to throw her support under current Vice President, and Democratic Nominee, Kamala Harris. Having not publicly disclosed her support for any presidential candidate since endorsing Biden in the 2020 election. Her hidden opinions were the cause of criticism as well as speculation as to which party she was planning to vote for due to her ongoing political silence. Ms. Swift discredited any rumors with this formal endorsement; ending the discussion by confidently expressing “I’ve done my research, and I’ve made my choice”, before urging eligible voters to register and participate in the upcoming election. Swift posted this message alongside an image of her holding her Cat and comically signing off as “Childless Cat Lady”, a riff-off of JD Vance’s comment that the country is run by a “bunch of childless cat ladies” who are completely “miserable”. With this final jab mocking an integral member of Trump’s campaign, Swift further distanced herself from the false reports of her supporting Trump and his running mate.
Unsurprisingly, this endorsement, wringing in mounds of attention and comments from the star’s two hundred eighty four million followers on Instagram, was met with a negative response by the Trump campaign. Following her post, the former president’s administration released new shirt designs, in a copy-cat style to the main shirt sold on Taylor Swift’s billion dollar grossing “Eras” tour. Only now, Swift’s iconic design was replaced with Trump’s name, and face which is currently on sale for thirty six dollars on his official website. The timing between Swift's announcement of her support for the democratic party, and the release of the T-shirts, appear too close to be coincidence; as it is obvious a celebrity endorsement of her caliber to the opposite party, would create tension nationally, and harm his campaign at a high-stakes point of the election process.
Although Swift has not responded publicly yet to Trump’s promotional marketing that has attempted and has for the moment succeeded at stealing her image at his benefit; ironically this behavior is what caused her to report the endorsement in the first place. At the moment Taylor Swift is regarded to be one of the most influential celebrities in the world, with her fan-base having a cult-like following to the brands, trends, and ideas she supports. Her voice, and her messages are amplified by a hundredfold due to her enormous fan-base; which although is dispersed globally, majority of her fans, like herself, are Americans. Due to this concentrated influence in the U.S. as the election has neared, more and more fake-news, sensationalized media, and deep fake AI videos which together have collectively spread misinformation about Swift’s voting intentions. In her initial message, she voiced her concerns about these falsehoods which misrepresent her values, and only worsen the media age and political tactics of disinformation.
The last that has been heard from Trump on this matter, has been his recent lash out on Truth social, in which in all caps, he posted “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT”. Although the message lacked surrounding context, this newfound aggression is without a doubt tied to last week's endorsement; revealing the weight of Swift’s message, the effectiveness of her controlled means of communicating with the public, and the impact transparency of public figures has on the political landscape.
Sources: https://www.msnbc.com/top-stories/latest/taylor-swift-trump-shirt-eras-tour-rcna171149
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/09/15/trump-i-hate-taylor-swift-harris-endorsement/
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/story/jd-vances-childless-cat-ladies-remark-was-a-reliable-punchline-at-emmys-2024
18 comments:
Whenever a celebrity endorses a presidential candidate, their fans usually follow. In many cases, it attracts even more attention to the presidential candidate. Taylor Swift coming out with a formal endorsement for Kamala Harris is destined to receive lots of attention. Similarly, Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and the man who bought Twitter endorsed Donald Trump. I find that celebrities endorsing presidential candidates create biases that I am not much of a fan of. People are already not informed about what a candidate stands for and these external influences help create more voting out of biases rather than informed voting. People may simply vote for a candidate because someone they like said they support that candidate. Additionally, at the time of writing this, sources say Elon Musk wrote a Harris assassination post. This type of behavior is very shocking and is the total opposite of an endorsement. It appears that both Donald Trump and Elon Musk are attacking Taylor Swift.
I totally agree with your point that it is ridiculous that celebrities often hold weight in elections and how much influence definitely does vary. However, what I believe is good about Taylor Swift's endorsement is her advice to her fans to educate themselves FOR their own well being, as well as get registered; as opposed to going on an opinion based rant, or baseless claims. Moreover, since voter turnout is important, her emphasis and redirection caused 330,000 people to visit voter registration website she linked.
For your comment about Elon Musk, I think his support of Trump is interesting, especially because Trump is censored from using his platform formerly known as Twitter, due to Trump trying to incite an insurrection on the app (Which is why I had to quote Truth Social in my article).
Similarly, to your point--- Elon Musk not only threatened Kamala Harris online, he also made provocative comments towards Ms. Swift of a distasteful nature, following her public endorsement. It is baffling on how a mature expression of voting intentions, has quickly spoiled, and turned either aggressive, or offensive online from both Musk and Trump.
I honestly think that this incident is yet another example of how Trump runs his campaign. Trump thrives on attention, and one of the most frequent ways he gets it is through his insane conspiracy theories or public attacks on famous individuals that will cause a stir and or bring attention away from more pressing matters that he struggles to accurately solve or address for that matter. He has left similar angry, and often derogatory comments, to people such as Meryl Streep, Jimmy Kimmel, and really anybody else that criticizes him and has some sort of recognition or influence. He's unfortunately mastered this algorithm to the point where his outrageous comments or social media posts are often reported on, or spread much more rapidly than, his failures and screwups as a former president.
Celebrities can’t win: their silence is frowned upon because they have the platform to say something, but when they speak out, they’re criticized for taking advantage of their audience and are guilty of “brainwashing” them.
Trump used Swift by selling knock-off Eras tour merch in hopes of displaying his disdain for her statement, but if he really doesn’t care about her, why has he gone to great lengths to counteract her opinion? His response “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT” says a lot too. I know many people say this in reference to her music, her cult-following, etc. but he holds such a strong opinion of her simply based on her lack of support/disagreements. It’s okay to not be happy that such an influential figure isn’t in support of you, but celebrities are entitled to their opinions and both sides have a number of famous figures in support of them.
Prior to Swift’s public endorsement of Harris, Trump and his supporters were spreading fake, AI-generated propaganda of Taylor Swift endorsing him instead. This makes me feel like Swift might’ve felt forced to refute those claims and give her opinion to the public, when perhaps she was planning on keeping quiet about it. Not only that, but the AI images of Swift supporting Trump’s campaign also shows that Trump knows the magnitude to which her platform holds; if he won over Swifties, he could win the election. With that said, I do agree with Aiden in that people should do their own research rather than blindly following what a celebrity believes. The reality is though, that there are a handful of people who don’t think for themselves, and so it’s “Taylor believes this and therefore, so do I”.
Just like Silas mentioned, and kind of to summarize, the GOP seems to be more of a reactionary party -- one that responds to lots of issues and gives their view on the current situation, as opposed to a party that creates (positive) attention based solely on what they do, e.g. by announcing their upcoming policies or by having a great press conference/rally.
Michela also mentioned that Trump was stealing Swift's image for benefit, and it should be noted that this extends beyond the simple Eras T-shirt design; Trump has repeatedly posted fake endorsements of Taylor Swift endorsing him, by using AI to impersonate Swift. Overall then, from my point of view, the actions Trump and his team are undertaking serve more to distance themselves from Taylor Swift (and thus their fanbase), and is definitely an interesting political move.
In other news, according to NPR, following Swift's endorsement of Harris, more than 400,000 visitors arrived to the vote.gov page following Swift's unique link. Although it should be noted that people can click links twice and not everyone registers on the spot after landing on the webpage, vote.gov (on the NPR article) still notes that a record 52,000 people registered from the time period from Swift's endorsement to midday Thursday. Although voter spikes do happen, I would speculate here that Swift's endorsement definitely played a huge role in convincing many to register.
I completely agree with everything you said Alex, but I think that it is important to note the animosity that Taylor Swift's fans and maybe herself felt towards the Trump campaign. A couple of months ago, JD Vance called Democrats "childless cat ladies," and Taylor is childless, and absolutely loves cats, having a few of her own. Of course, Swift's fans blew up at this comment, viciously defending Taylor and attacking JD Vance. While Isabella does bring up a good point above that celebrities can't really win with the media, as someone will always get upset at them for something they do, I do think that this was Taylor Swift's best option. She waited until after the debate aired to announce her endorsement, with Trump loosing his cool and spreading lies. This was the perfect timing for her, because at this point, some Trump supporters who were not die-hard supporters were questioning their political alligence, and Taylor Swift may have helped sway a decent amount of these voters in the middle.
I heavily agree, as we've discussed in class Trump and the Republican party has performed much more aggressive "brainwashing" in the form of far right wing conspiracy and groups such as Q-Anon. We even saw this conspiratorial thinking (Checkology) and brainwashing occur with the statement of immigrants eating dogs voice by both JD Vance and Donald Trump. I'm also of the opinion that celebrities, especially ones with huge platforms should at least counteract statements or opinions that pertain to their image or fame. For example, Taylor Swift is a women empowerment icon as such when it comes to acts such as Roe v. Wade being repealed that is an act that does fall under her image and should have an opinion voiced by her.
I think its sad that there is no way for celebrities to escape opposition and stay out of politics even if they want to. As noted in the post, even before Swift released any political statements, the public was aggressively speculating and she faced opposition for choosing to NOT say anything, and perhaps this pressured her into finally announcing a side. As it will result in lots of opposition and is even physically dangerous, I don't think celebrities should be pressured into sharing their political opinions, but if they do, they can have a very large impact. I think Trump's angry response was childish to the point where it is also kind of amusing if you don't take it too seriously.
I agree with your point it can be considered a negative to their lives and/or careers to be held responsible to be politically active--even if that doesn't align with their own personal wishes/beliefs/wish for privacy. However, I do think there are two sides to the coin. It is a privilege in general, to have a voice in politics, and to be allowed to freely share opinions that mostly matter to many (fan bases, public at large) and because celebrities are allowed to use their voice to spread messages on matters that aren't just political- I view this elevated political voice as a priveledge--celebrities wield power if they are able to just dip into the political scene and have a large impact. In fact many dedicate their careers to law, and justice, and their efforts seem minuscule to the outreach, and impact the average B or A list celebrity has via social media; it is both an interesting, and somewhat twisted phenomenon, as is this voice truly going to be used for goodness? and moreover since celebrities are benefitting off of their careers, and life in the limelight- at least on a monetary, and quality of living, this responsibility to be politically active does make sense for the sort of career they carry; and it is not just celebrities that have this sense of duty bestowed on them-- the same parallel can be drawn to leaders of companies, and other jobs that work with the public. On another note, I also believe it is ridiculous that a lack, or a presence of said voice, is the site of aggression or hatred from a fanbase/public----the emotional responses that many of these endorsements create, are rather foolish, and erode the issue at play, as discussed above.
I like your connection to how this incident, although in isolation is worse enough- when tied into the trend of how his campaign is run, ultimately is unsurprising. I wonder if Swift is going to be the only celebrity that he will torment over an endorsement of Kamala, as since Swift's endorsement, other high tier celebrities have endorsed her, such as Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas. It will be interesting to see if there will be similar divestments from the truth. I also agree with your idea that these emotional reactions from the former president, act as sort of an algorithm to his audience, who follow his words, as well as media outlets, who unintentionally recirculate his message under the true-intention of exposing wrongdoing.
Janak-- I also believe that Taylor Swift waiting until the end of the presidential debate was the best choice for her message to be recieved- as even if this opinion was held long before (She endorsed Biden in the 2020 Election), the timing of it all, generally directs her audience intentionally to educational information about said candidates, via the recent debate and coverage/analysis of each respective parties talking points. I think she evaded much of the backlash that is seen in today's intense political scene, in a way that is honest.
I think that the development of AI in elections is particularly terrifying, you bring up a good point about how not only Trump, but his supporters were generating fake images around Taylor endorsing him. Although Taylor shot down these allegations through her credible statement, one must wonder which and if another celebrity will be, or has been targeted in a similar misleading way--- and moreover, what this component of falsifying information at a much more believable rate due to technology has on the turnouts of elections, and public opinion on candidates.
(continued) Similarly, if there will be any laws in the future around such misinformation posts being regulated, or censored by fact check services on social media as we saw/see for information around international affairs such as the war in Gaza, and the pandemic in 2020.
After reading Taylor Swift's post endorcing Kamala Harris, I respect the fact that she didn't simply advise her audience to vote for Kamala as she herself is planning to do, but instead spread the more generic message that it is important for everyone to do their research "on the issues at hand and the stances these candidates take on the topics that matter to you the most." I feel like this was an excellent way of going about the endorcement, for she demonstrated maturity in the sense that she didn't outright encourage others to vote for Kamala or speak poorly of Donald Trump and instead urged people to do their research and get registered to vote. The segment at the end of her post about the importance of registering to vote really stood out to me, as it is apparent that most of her following is younger genereation individuals, many of whom can vote for the first time this year. The voter turnout of those between the ages of 18-29 has been historically lower than the turnout of other ages, and therefore this reminder to her audience about making sure to register to vote serves as greatly effective to those who have not yet been exposed to the voting process. Along the topic of artists who attract younger generation individuals, Billie Eilish also recently endorced Kamala Harris through a video to her 110 million Instagram followers on National Voter Registration Day, while her brother Finneas and herself said they'll be voting for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz and ended the video with a call to action, stating, "Vote like your life depends on it, because it does."
I find it important that Taylor Swift did not attempt to manipulate her fans to vote for a specific side, but instead encouraged them to do research and vote in a smart and well thought out manner. Trump's negative comments about Taylor Swift are not surprising, and down talking others is something Trump has constantly done. While I have not done enough research to confirm this, I find that the big majority of people that Trump publicly degrades is women (Nancy Pelosi, AOC, Hillary Clinton, Kim Kardashian, Angelina Jolie, most recently, Taylor Swift, and many others including sexist comments relating to the #MeToo movement). While it would make sense for this form of action to ruin his reputation, his supporters actually seem to back him more strongly after them.
I agree on the smart's of Swift to redirect her voters to voting websites to do their own research---I think this approach has motivated other celebrities such as Chappell roan, to not feel FORCED to endorse a candidate, and instead help pull young voters to these informational websites. It's honorable on their behalf
Moreover, to your next point- you bring up a brilliant point about how Trump in his career has profited politically off of degrading women, which I have seen through media coverage since his announcement of candidacy for the 2016 election. I think it is important to keep in mind that he also has been found liable for sexual assault in a civil suit. Similarly, your idea that he is supported MORE after these heinous instances and behavior, is a part of a larger problem of oppression of women in this country by people, but specifically by powerful men such as Mr. Trump. That is why in my opinion, I think having a brilliant President that happens to be female, such as Harris, will help defy gender roles in which women are considered to be 'less' than men and so fourth, as Trump himself has identified with.
I appreciate both celebrities ways of endorsing the candidates- as navigating public endorsements does seem to be a complicated task--- I do appreciate the more serious notion that Fineas stated, as there is a little lack of urgency on Swift's behalf on said political activity,
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