Trump Campaign Trolls Taylor Swift With Eras-Inspired Merch

Larisha Paul
·3 min read
132

Earlier this week, Donald Trump called in to Fox News to complain about Taylor Swift endorsing Kamala Harris. He made clear in that conversation that he “was not a Taylor Swift fan,” and yet his campaign is now selling Make America Great Again shirts that replicate the exact merchandise design the musician has been using on the Eras Tour.

“Calling all Swifties for Trump,” the official Team Trump account posted on X (formerly Twitter) this morning. “Get your Trump Era shirt today.” Printed on the white T-shirt is a grid of images of Trump overlayed with a bigger picture of him over his name and the MAGA phrase. It copies Swift’s design, which uses photos from each of her album eras, down to the color scheme — except Trump’s mugshot is positioned where Swift’s Fearless era picture goes.

The “Swifties for Trump” call in particular seems to be an attempt at pushing back against Swifties for Kamala, the coalition with thousands of members helping to elect Vice President Harris as the 47th president of the United States. The coalition has more than 280,000 followers across social platforms working to boost fundraising and voter registration efforts. It also reports have raised more than $150,000 for the Harris campaign in addition to forming a body of more than 3,500 active volunteers and getting more than 90,000 voters to check their registration status.

“Swifties for Trump,” on the other hand, is a phrase that first began circulating earlier this summer when the Trump campaign started pushing AI images using Swift’s name, image, and likeness to make it seem as though she endorsed him. At the time, Trump said he did not know the origin of the posts, some of which he shared himself. “I don’t know anything about them other than somebody else generated them. I didn’t generate them,” he told Fox Business at the time.

In her lengthy Instagram post endorsing Harris, Swift addressed those efforts directly. “Recently I was made aware that AI of ‘me’ falsely endorsing Donald Trump’s presidential run was posted to his site. It really conjured up my fears around AI, and the dangers of spreading misinformation,” she wrote. “It brought me to the conclusion that I need to be very transparent about my actual plans for this election as a voter. The simplest way to combat misinformation is with the truth.”

She continued: “I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election. I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them. I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos. I was so heartened and impressed by her selection of running mate @timwalz, who has been standing up for LGBTQ+ rights, IVF, and a woman’s right to her own body for decades.”

Trump tried to shrug off the endorsement. “I actually like Mrs. Mahomes much better,” he said, referencing the wife of quarterback Patrick Mahomes, Brittany Mahomes, who has recently liked posts supporting Trump. The athlete plays on the Kansas City Chiefs with Swift’s boyfriend, Travis Kelce. “I was not a Taylor Swift fan. It was just a question of time. You couldn’t possibly endorse Biden,” Trump added. “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.”

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