Donald Trump has described Taylor Swift as “unusually beautiful” but “liberal”, noting: “She probably doesn’t like Trump”.
The former US president and recently convicted felon was interviewed by Variety editor Ramin Setoodeh last November for a new book about his time hosting The Apprentice, Apprentice in Wonderland: How Donald Trump and Mark Burnett Took America Through the Looking Glass, which is set to be published on June 18.
Asked his opinion of Swift, Trump replied: “She’s got a great star quality. She really does.”
He continued: “I think she’s beautiful — very beautiful! I find her very beautiful. I think she’s liberal. She probably doesn’t like Trump. I hear she’s very talented. I think she’s very beautiful, actually — unusually beautiful!”
Asked specifically what he thinks of her music, Trump admitted: “Don’t know it well.”
He went on to question whether the pop superstar really is politically liberal, asking: “She is liberal, or is that just an act? She’s legitimately liberal? It’s not an act? It surprises me that a country star can be successful being liberal.”
When Setoodeh pointed out that Swift is no longer purely a country artist, Trump responded: “Garth Brooks is liberal. Explain that! How does it happen? But he’s liberal. It’s one of those things...”
Swift had been rumored to be a private Republican supporter during the 2016 election cycle, but in 2018 she went on to endorse Tennessee Democratic candidates Phil Bredesen for Senate and Jim Cooper for House of Representatives.
In her 2020 documentary Miss Americana, Swift discussed her decision to become politically vocal.
“Back in the [2016] presidential election, I was in such a horrendous place that I wasn’t going to pop my head out,” she explains. “These aren’t your dad’s celebrities and these aren’t your dad’s Republicans… I need to be on the right side of history.”
In the 2020 presidential election, Swift publicly backed Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. After that year’s Black Lives Matter protests, Swift directly tweeted at Trump: “After stoking the fires of white supremacy and racism your entire presidency, you have the nerve to feign moral superiority before threatening violence? ‘When the looting starts the shooting starts’??? We will vote you out in November.”
In a 2021 interview with Vanity Fair Swift explained further how Trump had affected her political stance, saying: “As a country musician, I was always told it’s better to stay out of [politics]. The Trump presidency forced me to lean in and educate myself.”
