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February 11, 2024 12:17pm
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Turns out Donald Trump is terrified of Taylor Swift.
Never one to miss a ham-handed attempt to make anything about himself, the former president and almost certain 2024 GOP nominee took to his Truth Social just hours before the Super Bowl. In a swerving missive designed to garner maximum attention and distract from his other woes, Trump tried to taunt Swift, slag Joe Biden and even take a swipe at Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.
“There’s no way she could endorse Crooked Joe Biden, the worst and most corrupt President in the History of our Country, and be disloyal to the man who made her so much money,” Trump said with a reference to not only his White House rival but the Music Modernization Act of 2018. “Besides that, I like her boyfriend, Travis, even though he may be a Liberal, and probably can’t stand me!”
As has been well reported, Swift flew back from her concert run in Tokyo to LA yesterday and is said to be on her way to Las Vegas for the Super Bowl right now. Coming off a season of NFL ratings spikes due to Swift at Chiefs games, Sunday’s appearance in a private box has attracted way more attention than half time act Usher or almost anything else related to the Super Bowl.
Denigrating people has long been the ex-Celebrity Apprentice host’s stock-in-trade, but while Trump has long captured the political power of America’s obsession with celebrity, it is unusual for him to throw in actual legislation like MMA. Trump signed the long festering law in October 2018 with pals Kid Rock and the Beach Boys’ Mike Love by his side. Intended to streamline revenue from royalties and smooth out copyright issues for artists from now dominate digital platforms like Spotify and Apple Music, the MMA also severely limited the companies’ liability on any unpaid royalties and more to violations that occurred after January 1, 2018.
Truth be told, with the huge volume of streams that Swift’s music has had on digital music platforms, she has been one of the few artists to receive hefty sums from Spotify and Apple Music. Using the former as an example, Swift, who is paid as performer and a songwriter, is estimated to have earned around $100 million from Spotify last year. A big part of that has to come from the spillover effect of Swift’s $1 billion and more earning Eras Tour, not to mention 2022’s hit Midnights album and 2023’s rerecord releases Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) and 1989 (Taylor’s Version)
With MAGA conspiracies galore swirling around Swift’s expected presence at the Super Bowl to support Kelce and the Chiefs against the San Francisco 49ers, Trump clearly wants to get out front of any repeated of the songstress’ 2020 endorsement of Biden. Polls have Biden v. trump 2.0 at a statistical tie seven months before the election. A state of affairs that could shift dramatically if Taylor unleashed her army of Swifts for the incumbent – a hypothetical the White House is as aware of as Trump is.
So, 2024 (Taylor’s Version) …game on!
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