Donald Trump calls Taylor Swift ‘unusually beautiful’ — but ‘liberal’
Donald Trump still has bad blood with Taylor Swift.
The former President of the United States — who was recently convicted of all 34 counts in his hush-money case — reduced the musician to her physical appearance while discussing her in a forthcoming book, “Apprentice in Wonderland: How Donald Trump and Mark Burnett Took America Through the Looking Glass,” which was written by Variety co-editor-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh.
In November 2023, Setoodeh asked Trump his thoughts on Swift, whom the former described as “the biggest celebrity of our times” in a passage published by Variety on Monday.
“She’s got a great star quality,” Trump, 77, admitted. “She really does.”
However, 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!”
The reality star-turned-Republican politician claimed he didn’t “know” Swift’s music “well.”
“But she is liberal, or is that just an act?” he asked Setoodeh. “She’s legitimately liberal? It’s not an act? It surprises me that a country star can be successful being liberal.”
When the journalist informed Trump that the Grammy winner, 34, had shifted from country to pop over a decade ago, the latter responded, “Garth Brooks is liberal. Explain that! How does it happen? But he’s liberal. It’s one of those things…”
According to the Setoodeh, the real estate mogul then “trail[ed] off.”
Swift, who had been rumored to be secretly conservative, publicly endorsed Tennessee Democratic candidates Phil Bredesen for Senate and Jim Cooper for House of Representatives in October 2018.
“In the past I’ve been reluctant to publicly voice my political opinions, but due to several events in my life and in the world in the past two years, I feel very differently about that now,” the singer-songwriter explained in part via Instagram at the time.
“I always have and always will cast my vote based on which candidate will protect and fight for the human rights I believe we all deserve in this country.”
Her June 2019 song, “You Need to Calm Down,” rebuked right-wing “freedom of speech” advocates who peddle homophobia. With lyrics about “taking shots” at her on Twitter before “7 a.m.,” fans felt Trump was the inspiration behind the track.
In her January 2020 documentary, “Miss Americana,” Swift elaborated on her decision to become politically vocal, saying, “Back in the [2016] presidential election, I was in such a horrendous place that I wasn’t going to pop my head out. 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.”
Later that year, the “Anti-Hero” hitmaker took aim at Trump for his response to both the murder of George Floyd by a police officer and the nationwide protests that followed.
“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’???” the songstress tweeted at then-POTUS in May 2020, promising to “vote [him] out in November.”
Swift then openly backed Democratic President Joe Biden in October 2020, telling V magazine at the time that she thought he had “a chance to start the healing process [the US] so desperately needs.”
She also felt he would be better equipped to handle the coronavirus pandemic because he “takes global health risks seriously and puts the lives of [Americans] first.”
