Kamala Harris Campaign Name-Checks 28 Taylor Swift Titles or Lyrics in Statement Following Trump’s Anti-Taylor Tirade
The Kamala Harris/Tim Walz campaign took advantage of Donald Trump’s blunt “I hate Taylor Swift!” social media statement by releasing a rather longer Swift-related statement of its own — one in which they name-check 28 Swift titles or lyrics.
The release that was issued by the Democratic candidates’ campaign Sunday morning was titled “Trump’s Bad Week (Taylor’s Version).” It begins, “We’re pretty sure it’s Safe (& Sound) to say Donald Trump’s week has him Down Bad. Mr. Not-at-all-Fine [a permutation of the title of the Vault track ‘Mr. Perfectly Fine’] has spent this week working through his feelings, whining about his Champagne Problems…” It continues in that vein as it goes on to include more than two dozen references that will be instantly recognizable to the singer’s fans.
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The statement does not outrightly call out the statement that Trump made on his Truth Social account Sunday morning — which read simply “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!” The sheer amount of song references in the Harris/Walz litany indicates a level of research that would indicate the statement was prepared in advance. But what might be considered an unforced error by Trump on Sunday morning in antagonizing Swifties provided the opposing campaign with a perfect opportunity to show some fans some love, in the midst of outrage.
The songs or albums referenced in the Harris-Walz campaign statement are: “Safe & Sound,” “Down Bad,” “Mr. Perfectly Fine” (changed to “Mr. Not-at-All Fine),” “Champagne Problems,” “The Man,” “Call It What You Want,” “Nothing New,” “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived,” “Shake It Off,” “Bad Blood,” “Better Than Revenge,” “Sad, Beautiful, Tragic,” “But Daddy, I Love Him” (via the “Oh my God, you should have seen the American people’s faces” line), “I Forgot That You Existed,” “Out of the Woods,” “Blank Space,” “Begin Again,” “Long Live,” “All Too Well,” “The Last Time,” “End Game,” “Breathe,” “The Story of Us,” “Back to December,” “Enchanted,” “Fearless,” “1989” and “We Are Never Getting Back Together” (invoked via the statement’s “like ever” capper).
One representative sample of the campaign statement reads: “His rambling, yelling and constant conspiracy theories have many asking of The Man is ‘too emotional’ to be president. Call It What You Want, but it’s Nothing New for the Smallest Man Who Ever Lived.”
That latter song title was becoming widely referenced Sunday morning, as Liz Cheney quote-tweeted Trump’s “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!” statement and simply added, “The smallest man who ever lived.”
Tim Walz had also referenced that song in a rally on Saturday night, although his verbiage in making the allusion was just slightly off.
“Here’s my life hack for all the guys out there,” Walz said at an event Saturday in Superior, Wisconsin. “Surround yourself with smart women and listen to them, and you’ll do just fine. That includes my fellow cat owner Taylor Swift, too, by the way. … It’s really great to have all of these women help us beat the smallest man in the world: Donald Trump.”
Trump’s “I hate Taylor Swift!” declaration on Sunday morning — issued with no other context — was puzzling to some political observers, since however upset he is with the superstar for endorsing Harris, there may be little upside in further antagonizing her hundreds of millions of fans, unless he sees a benefit in directly courting the Swift-hating incel crowd.
Earlier, Trump had been more measured in his response to Swift endorsing his opponents. “I was not a Taylor Swift fan,” he said in an interview on Fox & Friends Wednesday, the day after the presidential debate and Swift’s endorsement. “It was just a question of time. She couldn’t possibly endorse Biden… But she’s a very liberal person. She seems to always endorse a Democrat, and she’ll probably pay a price for it in the marketplace.”
Swift, of course, endorsed Joe Biden over Trump in the 2020 election cycle, with little effect on her in the marketplace, as her Eras Tour receipts are expected to more than double the all-time box-office record for a tour.
The Trump-Vance campaign has seemed flummoxed at times in its response to Swift’s Harris endorsement. JD Vance prompted jokes from Democrats for his lack of self-awareness of his own ticket when he said that most Americans are not “going to be influenced by a billionaire celebrity who I think is fundamentally disconnected from the interests and the problems of most Americans.”
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