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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Gustaf Kilander

Liz Cheney trolls Trump with Taylor Swift video: ‘This is what a sold out crowd actually looks like’

Getty

Former Republican Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney shared a video of a Taylor Swift concert to mock former President Donald Trump’s rally attendance.

“Thank you @taylorswift13 for giving us a million reasons to smile. PS- @realDonaldTrump this is what a sold out crowd actually looks like,” Cheney wrote on X on Sunday night.

Trump has long posted about the size of crowds at his rallies, but faced criticism on social media over the weekend as his rallies in Philadelphia showed half-filled arenas.

The video shared by Cheney featured a moment from Swift’s Eras Tour performance in London when she brought on boyfriend and Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce.

Kelce and Swift received nationwide attention when they started dating, and their partnership also elicited right-wing ire and baseless conspiracy theories after The New York Times reported in January that President Joe Biden was seeking Swift’s endorsement.

Cheney was ousted from the Republican leadership in the House and later from her Wyoming seat over her consistent criticism of Trump. She was only one of two Republicans to serve on the House Select Committee investigating the Capitol riot that took place on January 6.

Following the conservative attacks on Swift in the wake of Biden seeking her endorsement, Cheney defended her in a post on X.

“Taylor Swift is a national treasure,” Cheney wrote in late January of this year.

Trump has recently mentioned Swift on a number of occasions. During a meeting with House Republicans behind closed doors, Trump said he was “surprised” that Swift hadn’t supported him, Virginia Republican Representative Ben Cline told The Hill.

Cline said Trump had spoken about how “he did sign legislation during his administration to help the songwriters, and that he was surprised that Taylor Swift didn’t support him.”

Variety co-editor-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh wrote in a book published last week that Trump referred to Swift as “unusually beautiful.”

But he added: “I think she’s liberal. She probably doesn’t like Trump.”

Trump has boasted about his crowd sizes for years, most famously, he forced his then-press secretary Sean Spicer to use his first press conference in the White House in early 2017 to claim that the crowd at his inauguration had been the largest in history when photos clearly showed otherwise.

Last month, MSNBC noted that Trump overestimated how many people attended his recent rally in The Bronx. Trump claimed that 25,000 people attended while The New York Times reported that the campaign had a permit from the police for an event attended by 3,500 people.

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