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Swift silences Trump posts
Taylor Swift’s music was removed from social media videos posted by President Donald Trump’s campaign and the White House, with the audio disappearing from posts that had previously used her songs as background tracks.
“Did you know Taylor Swift wrote a whole album about the color of the Republican party?”
A Team Trump TikTok video posted 3 August showing Donald and Melania Trump watching fireworks used Swift’s “August,” and the caption said, “I’m sure @Taylor Swift is going to be super excited we used her song! #taylorswift #maga #august,” before the track later went silent.
Reuters reported that the White House and a representative for Swift did not immediately respond to requests for comment, while Reuters also said Swift had not spoken recently about Trump despite endorsing his Democratic rival, then-Vice President Kamala Harris, in 2024.
The dispute sits inside a longer pattern of Trump using pop music in political messaging, and Reuters described the campaign’s TikTok posts as using Swift’s lyrics and titles to accompany references to Trump’s policies.
The Guardian added that both the “August” fireworks video and a later parody post about Swift’s 2012 album “Red” are now silent, after the campaign published text asking, “Did you know Taylor Swift wrote a whole album about the color of the Republican party?”
Artists and captions react
The removals have revived public attention on Swift’s feud with Trump, after Trump posted “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!” following her Harris endorsement and later wrote that, “Has anyone noticed that, since I said 'I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT,' she’s no longer "HOT?".”
In the same Reuters account, the Trump campaign’s TikTok posts used Swift’s music alongside captions that played on her catalog, including a caption that read, “Red (Donald Trump's Version). Red (Taylor Swift Wrote A Whole Album About Republicans).”
The Guardian framed the broader context as a pattern of political “rage bait,” noting that Trump-related social media accounts had used Swift’s music in other campaign videos too, and that other artists including Ariana Grande and Sabrina Carpenter had publicly objected.
Grande’s objections were quoted directly in The Guardian after the White House posted her music over a montage of ICE agents handcuffing and detaining people, with Grande saying, “Please do not use my music in relation to this barbaric, inhumane, heinous nonsense.”
The Guardian also reported that when the White House used Carpenter’s song to soundtrack a video of immigration raids, Carpenter wrote, “This video is evil and disgusting. Do not ever involve me or my music to benefit your inhumane agenda.”
What’s at stake next
The removals also highlight how Swift’s catalog is being used in Trump-linked TikTok content, with Reuters detailing that the campaign used two Swift songs over the past week and that the White House and campaign had used her tracks in earlier posts as well.
“Do you really want to know where I was April 29th?”
Reuters said the White House shared a TikTok video in April showing the crew of Artemis II meeting Trump at the White House the day before, using Swift’s “High Infidelity” and the lyric, “Do you really want to know where I was April 29th?”
Reuters further described a November White House TikTok video featuring “The Fate of Ophelia” from Swift’s “The Life of a Showgirl” album, which included images of the U.S. flag, monuments and Trump’s 2023 arrest mugshot.
In that Reuters account, a White House spokesperson told multiple news outlets the video was created because the Trump administration knew news outlets “would breathlessly amplify them,” underscoring how the music-and-visuals approach is tied to attention and distribution.
The Guardian, meanwhile, said the “August” and “Red” parody posts are now silent, while it also noted that Swift has not commented on the latest case, leaving the next step unclear as the dispute continues between Trump’s social media operation and artists who object to political use of their songs.
