Donald Trump hates Taylor Swift, all caps

It’s been a whirlwind week for everybody’s favorite reality television star turned president turned felon. After being confirmed a 79-year-old man with very racist beliefs at the second presidential debate, Donald Trump and his team spent the immediate aftermath of their Tuesday night drubbing doubling down on said racism as the campaign bolstered lies about his vice presidential candidate’s Ohio constituents. It’s probably that freewheelin’ use of misinformation and proclivity for lying to voters, among other things (including his first term as president and entire life on Earth) that led Taylor Swift to endorse Kamala Harris publicly on Tuesday night. Swift, a savvy young person, probably doesn’t see much value in endorsing a septuagenarian with dwindling crowd sizes and an interest in Hannibal Lecter that would make even Fannibals uncomfortable.

Of course, just last month, Trump was sharing AI-generated images of Swift in an Uncle Sam costume endorsing Trump. He wants (or wanted) Swift’s endorsement. Unfortunately for him, tactics such as fake endorsements are unsavory to the pop star, who mostly writes about a self-reflection the former president may, sadly, never know. But don’t get it twisted; Trump is neither mad at Swift nor is he owned. He simply hates Taylor Swift, with all caps. The big guy said as much in one of his unsurprisingly sad Truth Social posts. “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT,” he Truthed like a man unbothered by a young woman’s endorsement of Harris.

While he’s neither mad nor owned, it would be reasonable for him to be both. Swift’s endorsement coincided with a spike in traffic at Vote.org, with more than 400,000 users visiting the voter registration site in 24 hours. None of this may matter because until Swift does something about the Electoral College, the election will probably be decided by a handful of votes in about three states. It’s also possible that the surge in visitors is due to Swifties for Trump rallying to betray their queen, who they believe betrayed them. It’s also possible that the 400,000 voters went to Vote.org because they were among the 67 million who watched Trump brag about having “concepts of a plan” during the debate and made their decision. Trump isn’t taking it that way. Based on the information we have now, he HATES TAYLOR SWIFT.

This is perhaps the most direct shot that Trump has taken at teen culture since he compelled Robert Pattinson not to get back together with Kristen Stewart, who Trump claimed “cheated on [Pattinson] like a dog.” Both Pattinson and Stewart were confused by Trump’s interest in the relationship of Twilight stars. For his part, Pattinson tried to use the experience as a sense memory for his art. Stewart had a more down-to-earth read on it: Trump was “obsessed” with her. However, we appreciate that Trump is keeping it clean in this instance—no need for insults, just a clear statement of opinion, free of anger or ownership. Wish we could stay the same for those trying to get him elected.