The leading contenders for the Democratic and Republican nominations for president in 2024 — President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, respectively — issued tweets that referenced Taylor Swift on Super Bowl Sunday, indicating that the celebrity singer may also be mentioned by the campaigns in the future.
On his Truth Social website, Trump tried to take credit for Swift’s wealth by mentioning a bill that he signed as president in 2018.
“I signed and was responsible for the Music Modernization Act for Taylor Swift and all other Musical Artists,” Trump said in his post. “Joe Biden didn’t do anything for Taylor, and never will.”
Trump then predicted that Swift, who endorsed Biden in the 2020 election, would be doing herself a disservice — and dishonoring Trump — by doing so again in 2024.
“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.
Dina LaPolt, an attorney who helped promote passage of the Music Modernization Act, disputed Trump’s statement.
“Trump did nothing on our legislation except sign it, and doesn’t even know what the Music Modernization Act does,” LaPolt said in a statement to Variety about the ex-president’s post. “Someone should ask him what the bill actually accomplished.”
A summary of the legislation states that the MMA “changes the way songwriters and music publishers are paid statutory mechanical royalties when their work is streamed on interactive streaming services.” The law entrusts a nonprofit entity created by the Copyright office with “collect[ing] and distribut[ing] these royalty payments to copyright owners of musical works matched to sound recordings in its database.”
Notably, around half of Swift’s personal wealth did not come from royalties derived by the MMA, but rather from income she made from the success of her Eras tour, which netted her over $500 million.
Meanwhile, over on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, the account for Biden shared a meme commonly referred to as his “Dark Brandon” persona after the Kansas City football team won the Super Bowl. In the text of the post, Biden appeared to troll believers of a far right conspiracy theory that purports that the NFL, Swift, and her boyfriend, Kansas City tight end Travis Kelce, “fixed” the outcome of the season as part of a psyop operation.
“Just like we drew it up,” the post said.
The Swift-related posts from both candidates came weeks after a report from Rolling Stone — citing sources familiar with Trump’s thinking and discussions — said that he regularly claims that he’s more popular than Swift and that the pop star’s past endorsement of Biden doesn’t worry him.
In fact, polling from an NBC News survey from November shows Swift is far more popular among Americans than Trump is. According to that poll, Swift received a +24 net favorability rating, whereas Trump’s net rating was -16 points.
Swift’s popularity could be utilized by the Biden campaign in the coming months, potentially prompting some younger voters — a demographic the president is struggling with — to support him in his rematch with Trump.